I was born in Elmsford, New York, a small town just a short drive northeast from the city. It's a quaint and cozy place, one where people nestle among the trees, sipping their coffee as they drop in and out of each others' homes and businesses. The town was named after my predecessor, Mighty Ulmus the elm tree. Mr. Ulm was the town protector, and upon himself he took the duty of sheltering the town as he could by stretching his branches and leaves along the town. He grew strong and sturdy, and though many storms tried to tear him away to get to the town, his roots were too strong and deep to raze him. He would not give in. Mr. Ulm lived for some hundred years before Dutch Elm Disease swept through the land and tragically claimed his life mid-summer in 1980. And that was the birth of me.

You see, the town had no other protector against the rain. Since all the Elms had been wiped out by the very disease that took their elder, it was necessary for the residents of Elmsford to create their own shelter. The townsfolk put together their resources and created me, an umbrella.

And that's how I, George Bradley, was born. I now take great pleasure in protecting my owner, Ms. Heather Davidson, as she takes me for walks outside on rainy days. She seems to enjoy the rain, but I know she gets quite irritable when she becomes wet and cold. So like Mr. Ulm years before me, I unfold myself and stretch out my cloth to keep the rain from falling on her. (She especially doesn't like it when her hair gets wet when it's straight. I still don't understand why that's such a big deal, but what do I know, I'm just an umbrella.) We have a great relationship, she and I. Some people even call me her Mary Poppins umbrella, which I must admit boosts my ego, as that's who I aspire to be.

We reside in Roseville, a suburb near Minneapolis. It's one of my favorite places, actually. I may have been born in New York, and have moved around quite a bit in my life, but I have found great comfort in this city, with its rain-coated streets and miles of lakeshore to stroll around.

I've gotten a few dings and dents from the wear of time, but just like Mr. Elm, nothing has bring me to ruin yet. My greatest battle is usually with Mrs. Wind, an emotional and sometimes angry mistress. She can get under my cloth like no one else, and when she does, she can break my bones. But Heather is quite careful and we battle Mrs. Wind together.

For now, I sit nestled in the coat closet, chatting with her fall and spring jackets, boots and scarves. They're quite friendly, and we like to talk about how we can work together to make Heather's life a better one.

Until the next time it rains....
Mr. Bradley


______________________________________________________________________


This is not one of my better pieces of writing...far from it, actually, but in my goal to post something at least once/week, if not MORE, the idea is to simply write, whether or not it's crap. Today as certainly more about the creative process than the writing itself, so I allowed myself (for the most part) to "just write" without tending to as many sentences I felt were rather lackluster.

Every once in a while I get struck with the mood to write, but don't know exactly what I want to say or how to say it. So tonight, as I sat trying to figure out how to flush out this funk I'm in, I had to get creative to figure out what to write about. I found this picture while going through old photos and thought it fit my mood lately. But I had no idea what I could write about it.
Originally I thought my story would be about the rain. I take a lot of inspiration from nature, and though I liked what I could do with rain, I wanted to expand my thought process into something different.
Hoping to spark other inspiration, I pulled out a book I bought a couple years ago called "Write Starts" - a book of writing prompts that has gone mostly untouched since its purchase. One of the prompts was "Is it possible for inanimate obejects to have an interesting life?"
It was then I thought of an umbrella.
The story unfolded from there. I wanted to tell the story of an umbrella, its life, its purpose, its relationship to its owner (something I think girls could understand more as an accessory than a man.)
One of the companies I searched for manufactured its umbrellas in this actual town of Elmsford, which according to the all-knowing source of Wikipedia, was apparently founded in 1870, its namesake coming from the giant Elm that stood in the center of town. I subsequently found I was loving Mr. Ulm's story, as well, perhaps a bit too much for this story, but felt I had to tell the story of Ulm's legacy to give Mr. George Bradley a purpose. (For those of you wondering, George Bradley is a modified reference to one of my favorite films, Roman Holiday, whose character Joe Bradley is played by the suave and handsome Gregory Peck.)

From there, I had fun taking it back to my Minneapolis days (where this picture was taken) and describing at least the minimum relationship between Heather Davidson (my Regina Falange) and Mr. Bradley. Maybe this could become an adventure series, the adventures of Mr. Bradley and Ms. Davidson...who knows?

And so went the creative portion for my evening. I think this getting back into writing kick could get fun.

~ Hannah