Some lives in traps and some lives free in wagons. Yeah, you pity me, poor and rough as I be. What you don’t know, my suited-and-booted friend, is I pity you—you’ll be paying-off that debt-trap house until you’re old and joyless. Whenever I tire of the setting, I just hitches up me wagon and moves on.
You calls us tinkers or gyppos, though we’re an ancient people with our own language. We calls you salary men. What really scares you is our freedom: I plays me fiddle at a couple of weddings and earns me the dosh to do as I please all week.
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Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Dear Neil,
Quite the contrast in lifestyles. To each his own.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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The Romany culture has always fascinated me
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Me, too! When I see there wagons, I want to join them.
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Their wagons, dang it!
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Beautifully wrought contrast – and I’m certain quite true of the attitude of many who travel as a way of life.
Jen
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Thanks so much
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There is a certain romantic appeal to that lifestyle. Of course, capitalism will never allow them to get away with it.
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No, Civilisation beckons
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So much for the grass being greener.
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Thanks for reading
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Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. But I’m not sure about the bathroom facilities so I might stick to the debt-trap. Liked the voice.
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Thanks so much, Sandra
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On a trip to Slovakia several years ago, I met several Roma, as the gypsies there are known. Some have settled down to farming, but most are still itinerant and happy to be so, in spite of the Communists efforts to put them into cement high-rise buildings. Conformity matters to Communists. Not the the Roma 🙂
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It matters also, I think, to democratic states
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I found myself sitting by a campfire, yet I chose cement.
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Nicely put
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Freedom or stability? Each has a price.
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Thanks for reading
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The freedom certainly is alluring… Your treatment of his voice was just right! Great story. -Angela
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Thanks so much, Angela.
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i suppose to each their own. we have to respect that.
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Thanks for reading
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Very different ways of life and quite the contrast. Well done.
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Thanks so much
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Ten hours of pushing broom buy an 8 by 10 four-bit room – I’ve been listening to Country music! Love the story and the voice here.
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Thanks so much, Liz
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Oh a lovely breakdown of different lifestyles and different choices. To each their own as they say. Well done.
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Thank so much, Laurie
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Your narrator makes it sound so logical, and I’m almost convinced. Well told. I love the voice.
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Thanks so much, Margaret
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I almost envy his lifestyle. I often considered living on a narrowboat and moving from one location to another, but I never got around to it.
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There is much to envy in it. Thanks, Keith
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I have met a few travellers still using horse drawn caravans, they are interesting people. The modern travellers with they vans and enormous caravans seem more akin to being non-conformist capitalists.
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Thanks for reading, James
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❤ ❤ ❤ Thank you for your Roma homage. There is something to be said for their lifestyle. If only the salary men would let them be…
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Thanks so made, Jade
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You’re very welcome, Neil.
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Like any a people, they have within them the joyous, the wounded, the harmful, the angry, the placid, the wise, the bullies, the foolish, the kind. And like many a people, some find their lifestyle to fit, others to chafe against. To each their own, and what is good for one, may not be good for all. No matter the wagon or a cement floor.
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All very true, Na’ama
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Live and let live.
A story that reminds us how many differences there are.
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Thanks so much, Dawn
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