Rainy Day Writers

Rainy Day Writers Rainy Day Writers includes published authors, journalists, and those who write both life experiences and fictional stories for personal fulfillment.

They publish a book each year and contribute regularly to Crossroads magazine and YourRadioPlace.

11/01/2025

Martha Jamail will make you smile with her embarrassing moment. Read more Rainy Day Writers stories at Your Radio Place or in Guernsey News.

An Embarrassing Moment by Martha Jamail

It was just an ordinary Saturday when our air conditioning stopped working. My husband made a call and, before leaving to run errands, told me the repairman would come in the afternoon around one o’clock.

At 10 am, I decided I’d have enough time to color my hair, so I applied the solution. Knowing I had a 10-minute wait time before rinsing, I also applied Nair hair removal cream on my face. After about 5 minutes had passed, the doorbell rang. I panicked, knowing it wouldn’t be my husband. Looking in the mirror, I saw the reflection of a woman with her entire head plastered with black goo, and a mustache of white cream!

There was nothing I could do. I thought quickly about wrapping a towel turban-like around my head, but that would certainly ruin a good towel. The cream on my face was just beginning to work and would take too much time to adequately remove before I needed to answer the door.

I approached the door slowly hoping it was my neighbor, Patty. But, NO! It was the air conditioning repairman, and he was quite young. I just knew the poor guy would be scared out of his wits.

So, . . . I took a deep breath, opened the door slightly, and said, “I’m going to open the door, but I don’t want to startle you. I’m coloring my hair, and I have cream on my face, so be prepared.”

As I opened the door all the way, the young man looked at me and laughed saying, “You don’t have to worry, Ma’am. You look just like my mother.”

Life is like a book. Some chapters are sad,, some are happy , and some are exciting, but if you never turn the page, you...
10/24/2025

Life is like a book. Some chapters are sad,, some are happy , and some are exciting, but if you never turn the page, you will never know what the next chapter has in store for you.

(This describes our new Rainy Day Writers book, "Patchwork Tales." Pictured is the recent book signing.)

10/24/2025

Betsy Taylor reminds us of the times when the Cuyahoga River caught fire. Read her description and what it did for our environmental conscience. Find more Rainy Day Writers stories on Your Radio Place and in Guernsey News.

River Ablaze by Betsy Taylor

In 1969 I was a year away from graduating with a four-year university diploma bearing my name. I enjoyed being a student at a small school in Southwestern Kentucky where the landscape reminded me so much of Cambridge. Because I’m a homebody one of my friends sent me a subscription to the Daily Jeffersonian Newspaper and I can’t emphasize enough how much I looked forward to receiving each issue.

I looked for names of friends and neighbors in the paper’s articles and stories. State and national news accounts were also welcome. In June a small report of Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught my eye. It seems the darn thing had caught fire – again.

It’s not that a river ablaze isn’t a big deal, but the Cuyahoga had caught fire before with more serious consequences. In fact, there had been 12 Cuyahoga River fires in Ohio’s history (since 1869). This time though the event was a big deal in terms of environmental science. Even ordinary citizens along with scientists had become concerned about the health of their surroundings. We could thank public figures like Ralph Nader and Rachel Carson for expanding our collective environmental conscience.

This time the river burst into flames when oily bits of floating junk were hit by sparks from a nearby train. The short-lived fire produced no casualties.

Time Magazine picked up the story and ran with it turning a hum-drum event into a media sensation. Even though the river fire had occurred in Ohio, I didn’t pay much attention to the story until my ecology professor referenced it in class and treated it as a joke. Burning water – Ha Ha. Imagine water that was actually a fire hazard.

A murmur went through the room. I was embarrassed that my classmates imagined my home state to be a grungy place so dirty that one of its rivers could burst into flame. Of course, my professor saw the story as a teachable moment highlighting the negative effects heedless humans can have on the places they live.

A quote from the Federal Water Pollution Administration stated, “The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms that usually thrive in waste.”

Rivers in other states had met the same fate as the Cuyahoga. Those citizens had been guilty of the same environment abuses. Was Time Magazine picking on us? Probably not. But, as it turned out, they did us a huge favor in the form of a wake-up call galvanizing the country into action.

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 and later the Environmental Protection Agency was established. Important “acts” were passed in short order. The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act along with several others resulted in major changes in the ways we protect ourselves.

Although the Cuyahoga River still drains runoff from major cities along its banks, the improvement in its health has been dramatic. A dozen species of fish, even those sensitive to pollution, now inhabit its water, and birds such as the great blue heron have returned. Sounds good. But we can’t breathe easily if we remember the carelessness that, 12 times, turned the waterway into an inferno.

Claire Cameron takes a trip back in time to visit "The Little Rascals." Perhaps you enjoyed their humor also years ago. ...
10/21/2025

Claire Cameron takes a trip back in time to visit "The Little Rascals." Perhaps you enjoyed their humor also years ago. Read all about her thoughts in October's Crossroads magazine.

10/20/2025

Mark Cooper thinks about writers' block. It happens! Read more Rainy Day Writers' stories on Your Radio Place and in Guernsey News.
Blocked, Unblocked by Mark Cooper
Pen in hand. Blank page, crisp and clean, ready and waiting. But I’m blocked. Time to shift tactics.
Start my computer. Open a blank page. An impatiently blinking mouse awaits my touch, tormenting me.
Still blocked.
Try typing random words and phrases. Is inspiration stirring? No, the block remains firmly in place.
A deadline looms. Will a good night’s sleep help? Will words flow in my dream world, freeing my creativity? Maybe, but come morning’s light and they erase, forgotten before they can be transcribed onto the blank pages.
Memories of an ancient manual typewriter I once used ni**le in my mind. Tiny round keys. Ribbon easily sticking and smearing ink. Maybe if it were on my desk for me to peck at, ideas would unlock. But probably not.
Typewriters remind me of Jake, a young blogger I once followed. He printed aphorisms on random scraps of paper, using his old manual typewriter. I won a contest he held for his readers. The prize was some of his own work. He sent me these words typed on a Manila label,
“Far too many blessed with sight travel life blind.” -Jake Lira (not Jake the MMA fighter).
“…travel life blind.” Or in my case, at this very moment, traveling through this day blocked.
Blocked. Perhaps I need to learn more about this condition afflicting me. Time to google.
“Writer’s Block, an inability to produce new work or a significant slowdown in [a writer’s] creative output.” Dr. Edmund Burgler coined the phrase. He was a psychiatrist. He said writer’s block was a physiological condition “rooted in neurotic inhibition and inter conflict.” From there he went down a Freudian rabbit hole that ultimately blamed moms. Poor women, as if their lives aren’t tough enough, why not pile on more guilt for them to bear.
Do Dr. Burgler’s thoughts on the matter mean I’m mentally ill?
Other thinkers, those blessed with common sense, say that a block is simply a necessary part of the creative process, a foundation, if you will, that leads to a breakthrough producing new and fresh ideas. It happens to everyone. Nothing to stress about. Perfectly normal. Please don’t blame mom.
I find those thinkers more trustworthy than Dr. Burgler.
Feeling better now. Maybe I can break through my block. Perhaps I can write and meet my deadline.
Wait a minute. I just did.
I’m unblocked!

The game is afoot! Beverly Kerr recently talked to the ladies involved with Sherlock Holmes Mystery Weekend. Join in the...
10/16/2025

The game is afoot! Beverly Kerr recently talked to the ladies involved with Sherlock Holmes Mystery Weekend. Join in the fun of solving the mystery or the following week, watch the entire production at Pritchard-Laughlin. It's a great show anyway you look at it. Read the entire article in October's Crossroads magazine.

Rick Booth discusses the popularity of fall out shelters in the 1960s. Is there a chance we might need them today? Read ...
10/07/2025

Rick Booth discusses the popularity of fall out shelters in the 1960s. Is there a chance we might need them today? Read the entire article in October's Crossroads magazine.

09/26/2025

John Anderson tells why people love their dogs. Can you add any to his list? Read more articles by Rainy Day Writers on Your Radio Place or in Guernsey News.

Why We Love Our Dogs by John Anderson

Every so often a car displays a bumper sticker that acknowledges the adoption of a dog.

There is a picture of a dog above a question- “Who saved Who?”

There are at least four reasons that are evidence showing why we love our dogs.

There are no walls or conditions for a dog’s love.

Dogs always offer an enthusiastic welcome even if you have been gone a few seconds, a few hours, or a few days.

A special needs child finds complete acceptance from a dog and therefore those special needs peel away… for instance, if a child stutters, the stutters disappear when he is talking to his dog.

A pet owner doesn’t own a dog for all of the owner’s life. But the owner does have the dog for all its life. Owners commonly have a succession of dogs with the same name. There may be a Scottie 1, a Scottie 2 and a Scottie 3. Owners hope to be reunited with all three of them at the end of their lives.

As a dog owner, what reason would you add to this list?

Betsy Taylor tells about an aunt's questionable gifts with connections to the past. Read more Rainy Day Writers stories ...
09/16/2025

Betsy Taylor tells about an aunt's questionable gifts with connections to the past. Read more Rainy Day Writers stories on Your Radio Place and in Guernsey News.

Recently, Beverly Kerr explored library book clubs and found that the Newcomerstown Library had a wide variety while all...
09/10/2025

Recently, Beverly Kerr explored library book clubs and found that the Newcomerstown Library had a wide variety while all libraries had book clubs for discussion of popular books. If you like to read and discuss the book you are reading, perhaps you would like to visit a local book club.

09/08/2025

Martha Jamail tells a tale of a tree that gives her a thankful memory. Read her story here, on Your Radio Place, and in Guernsey News.

The Whatever Tree by Martha Jamail

The first time I noticed the tree was in the fall of the year, soon after the start of school. The other trees, with their leaves so burnished bright red and gold, took center stage on the streets of Cambridge. But this lowly tree stood all alone in the middle of a wide-open field with no leaves at all.

One day, driving down Read Road where it crosses Route 21, I had to stop for a line of early morning traffic. As I waited, I looked across the road and saw the tree. The branches on either side of the tree were upturned and symmetrical, perfectly mimicking the gesture of someone throwing up their arms and saying, “Whatever!” So, I named it the “Whatever Tree”.

Ever since that day, I looked at the tree each time I drove past, and smiled thinking of that name and of how much the branches reminded me of that gesture. I remember thinking that that was why the owner of the field had never cut the tree down and just left it standing there.

One morning while I was driving down Read Road, I came to a stop sign and, as usual, looked both ways before pulling out onto Route 21. I remember thinking that the tree looked different. It had lots of green leaves on one side of it, but the other side was still bare. I wondered if it was finally starting to grow leaves, or if another young tree was starting up beside it. I even thought that maybe I should write a story about it. All these thoughts running through my head took only seconds.

My car was still on the left lane of the road when a horn blew, and a speeding truck came barreling past from the blind curve on my right. I was so startled! I couldn’t believe how close I had come to basically being hit in a high-speed collision. I had looked both ways and had seen nothing on either side. Only my thoughts of the “Whatever Tree” had slowed me just enough to keep me on the left side of the road. The silly tree had saved my life. I knew then that I was going to have to write about it. That’s my story, and you can think “whatever” you want.

Rick Booth describes The Drovers Road used to move cattle and hogs across the state on what is called "Clay Road" in par...
09/05/2025

Rick Booth describes The Drovers Road used to move cattle and hogs across the state on what is called "Clay Road" in parts today. Learn more about those early drover days in September's Crossroads magazine.

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