September 19, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about mud on the tires. What is the situation? Who is involved? Let the words take you into a story. Go where the prompt leads!

Growing up rural in 1950’s was hard. Small rural schools taught reading, writing and ‘rithmetic, home economics for the girls, shop for the boys. Teachers were strict, parents stricter. Girls would be wives and mothers; boys would be husbands with jobs. Futures were cast.

The school of hard knocks taught how to survive, things not learned in textbooks, experiences gained navigating young lives. Some prospered, became successful and happy; others survived.

The experiences gained, lessons learned, successes and failures, whether thick or thin, it’s all just mud on one’s tires of life. Only one knows how thick the mud.

Read last week’s 99-word Collection, Balloons on the Bumper.