Hitman -- Fruit of the Vine [Green] 47

Title: Fruit of the Vine
Authored by: vanillafluffy
Pairing/spoilers: Fate of characters from "Hitman" the movieverse
Rating/Work-safeness: Green/G
Approximate word count: 500
Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the DVD
Summary: A bottle of wine reminds 47 of Nika. Clearly she's been thinking of him, too.

( 47 glances around the shop, where bottles are cradled in racks, in cartons, wine bottles everywhere. His gaze is arrested by the graphic on one label in particular. )

Comments are shiny.
.

Hitman -- Fruit of the Vine [Green] 47

Title: Fruit of the Vine
Authored by: vanillafluffy
Pairing/spoilers: Fate of characters from "Hitman" the movieverse
Rating/Work-safeness: Green/G
Approximate word count: 500
Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the DVD
Summary: A bottle of wine reminds 47 of Nika. Clearly she's been thinking of him, too.

( 47 glances around the shop, where bottles are cradled in racks, in cartons, wine bottles everywhere. His gaze is arrested by the graphic on one label in particular. )

Comments are shiny.
.

39 to 50

Since I've somehow managed to get out of synch in countdown mode, today is going to be a general, nonchronological post of the stuff that I don't have pinned down as far as what year goes.

My folks joined the YMCA somewhere around the time I was in 5th or 6th grade so I could take swimming lessons and to get a discounted rate for day camp. There was a July session and an August session---I got signed up for one or the other, but not both. There was daily swimming, craft projects, and a field trip every week.

The Staten Island Y was right across the street from the Staten Island Zoo. (It may have changed since then, but at the time, that was the location.) Since they didn't charge admission, just a donation if you had it, I often went there to hang out on Saturday after swim lessons. It was the old-fashioned kind of zoo with concrete kennels, not one of today's enlighted zoos with habitats, but I didn't know any better. I liked the crocodiles, and the ponies in the petting zoo.

The only trouble with year-round swimming at the Y was, I still had my tonsils (and still do, because our family doctor kept changing his mind about whether they should come out), and every fall, religiously, I developed a case of tonsilitis that lasted from November til April. I sniffled a lot, and every now and then it would flare up and I'd be in for days of dosing with the pink antibiotic goop of death. It got me out of school, which as you can imagine, I didn't mind, but it also meant missing swimming, which I liked. Not the lessons so much, but the freedom and lightness of being in the water.

Swimming came in handy when Aunt Mary and Uncle Al took me on vacation with them to Lake George, in upstate New York. Lake George is in the Adirondack Mountains---if you've seen the Daniel Day-Lewis version of Last of the Mohicans and you remember them talking about Ft. William-Henry, THAT was at Lake George (although the movie itself was filmed in the Carolinas).

I've been to the recreated Ft william-Henry, where they'd shoot off the cannons and talk about the battles that had happened there. It was a little jarring, though, because beyond the parapets was a miniature golf course with a 30-foot tall Paul Bunyon towering over the windmill and castle. We played that, too, and a good many of the other local attractions.

Lake George is very much a tourist-oriented community; there were tons of souvenir stores, a penny-arcade, ice cream parlors...I loved a place called The Trading Post that was right across the way from the spin-art booth. I enlarged my Breyer horse collection by several ponies over the years....

There were several modest amusement parks nearby. There was Storybook Land and Ghost Town---half the park had castles and cottages and things like that---I borrowed Cinderella's pumpkin coach, plulled by a pair of Shetland ponies for one of my stories---and the other side of the park had Ghost Town, with staged bank robberies and a ride through an old mine.

My favorite place, though, was Gaslight Village. This was a theme park modeled after an 1890s village, and I loved it. They had what was billed as the oldest still-operating carousel: Instead of going up and down on a pole, the horses rocked as they circled 'round, a surging motion more like the dime rides they used to have at shopping centers. In addition to assorted rides, Gaslight Village had an arcade, a vaudeville show, a cavalcade of cars, and a gallery of dolls dressed in exquisite Victorian styles. I adored it.

One of Aunt Elsie's other sons owned property there, so we had a private stretch of lakefront where we could swim and picnic. I'm sure for Aunt Mary, one of the best things about vacations was eating out and not having to cook. I remember a variety of restaurants, but no names after all this time.

Lake George is one of those places I dream about often, although I haven't been there since 1978. Aunt Mary and Uncle Al have both been gone for quite a while, and according to the internet, Gaslight Village is closed down and scheduled for demolition. I guess it's true: You can't go home again....


.

39 to 50

Since I've somehow managed to get out of synch in countdown mode, today is going to be a general, nonchronological post of the stuff that I don't have pinned down as far as what year goes.

My folks joined the YMCA somewhere around the time I was in 5th or 6th grade so I could take swimming lessons and to get a discounted rate for day camp. There was a July session and an August session---I got signed up for one or the other, but not both. There was daily swimming, craft projects, and a field trip every week.

The Staten Island Y was right across the street from the Staten Island Zoo. (It may have changed since then, but at the time, that was the location.) Since they didn't charge admission, just a donation if you had it, I often went there to hang out on Saturday after swim lessons. It was the old-fashioned kind of zoo with concrete kennels, not one of today's enlighted zoos with habitats, but I didn't know any better. I liked the crocodiles, and the ponies in the petting zoo.

The only trouble with year-round swimming at the Y was, I still had my tonsils (and still do, because our family doctor kept changing his mind about whether they should come out), and every fall, religiously, I developed a case of tonsilitis that lasted from November til April. I sniffled a lot, and every now and then it would flare up and I'd be in for days of dosing with the pink antibiotic goop of death. It got me out of school, which as you can imagine, I didn't mind, but it also meant missing swimming, which I liked. Not the lessons so much, but the freedom and lightness of being in the water.

Swimming came in handy when Aunt Mary and Uncle Al took me on vacation with them to Lake George, in upstate New York. Lake George is in the Adirondack Mountains---if you've seen the Daniel Day-Lewis version of Last of the Mohicans and you remember them talking about Ft. William-Henry, THAT was at Lake George (although the movie itself was filmed in the Carolinas).

I've been to the recreated Ft william-Henry, where they'd shoot off the cannons and talk about the battles that had happened there. It was a little jarring, though, because beyond the parapets was a miniature golf course with a 30-foot tall Paul Bunyon towering over the windmill and castle. We played that, too, and a good many of the other local attractions.

Lake George is very much a tourist-oriented community; there were tons of souvenir stores, a penny-arcade, ice cream parlors...I loved a place called The Trading Post that was right across the way from the spin-art booth. I enlarged my Breyer horse collection by several ponies over the years....

There were several modest amusement parks nearby. There was Storybook Land and Ghost Town---half the park had castles and cottages and things like that---I borrowed Cinderella's pumpkin coach, plulled by a pair of Shetland ponies for one of my stories---and the other side of the park had Ghost Town, with staged bank robberies and a ride through an old mine.

My favorite place, though, was Gaslight Village. This was a theme park modeled after an 1890s village, and I loved it. They had what was billed as the oldest still-operating carousel: Instead of going up and down on a pole, the horses rocked as they circled 'round, a surging motion more like the dime rides they used to have at shopping centers. In addition to assorted rides, Gaslight Village had an arcade, a vaudeville show, a cavalcade of cars, and a gallery of dolls dressed in exquisite Victorian styles. I adored it.

One of Aunt Elsie's other sons owned property there, so we had a private stretch of lakefront where we could swim and picnic. I'm sure for Aunt Mary, one of the best things about vacations was eating out and not having to cook. I remember a variety of restaurants, but no names after all this time.

Lake George is one of those places I dream about often, although I haven't been there since 1978. Aunt Mary and Uncle Al have both been gone for quite a while, and according to the internet, Gaslight Village is closed down and scheduled for demolition. I guess it's true: You can't go home again....


.