#TheCampfire
Went to get one book
came back with a pile
oh well 😻♈️
it’s birthday month after all

A picture of the beautiful, butterfly elephant discovered centuries ago in a forest on a mysterious planet, this is the only picture of the gorgeous creature and I tell everyone it's simply AI 🤩 as she stands among the blue flowers and misty forests of her home.

#TheCampfire #Fiction #ColorADay #BlueTues

€ A long time ago, in a place far, far away, there was a tale of giant flying butterflies, seen in the misty forests of a mysterious planet. My research team planned for an excursion to this planet and when we arrived, it was eerily quiet. We split up, to

Thank you Luis! Be sure to check out all the great stories from #TheCampfire today

I was married once, in my twenties, for less than seven years. Less time than I have spent in most relationships since. Yet there is still an entire drawer full of photographs from that life in my home. As I look back at this picture, I am reminded of what went wrong. We were supposed to be the perfect couple, right? I guess many people think that when they begin. Supportive family. Laughed a lot. Fun at parties. Shared values. He was an aspiring journalist who played in a rock band. I was an aspiring dancer and arts administrator. Just one thing ruined my fairytale. I was desperate to have a baby. He was - not so much. We had plans to move to NYC, and he had landed a job offer there. He felt that babies were not compatible. Not just then. It felt to me like - not ever. We moved to New York. The glue of the idea of family had fallen apart. Shortly thereafter, I suggested two apartments. I launched myself into graduate school and then into my career and we divorced. Now, finding this picture, I remember how lost and conflicted I felt back then. I never had children, and for the most part, I don’t regret it. I had a great career, surpassed my own goals, walked proud. And once upon a time, I held a baby.

#TheCampfire

This is me, with my nephew (in-law)

Go to ALT/text for story

When I was a freshman in high school, my buddy found a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook. Now that is a manual on how to create some legitimate chaos, there are parts in that book that tell you how to improvise a gun. There's parts that tell you how to create your own landmines, and there's a hell of a good recipe for a smoke bomb. We started getting into it, and it was really, really interesting. We didn't do any of the super dangerous stuff, we didn't wanna hurt anyone. But we really loved that smoke bomb recipe. We started with just a little bit in ice cube trays, we would make little tiny, sort of a half an ice cube worth of smoke bomb. All you'd have to do is just set it on fire. You could put a wick in it, or you could even put a birthday candle in it, if you wanted to delay it a little bit - when the candle burned down all the way, it would go off. We tried them out in the grassy fields near our school and man, those things let off a ton of smoke! It was like military grade, professional smokescreen. White plumes wafting across the field, obscuring the whole school with smoke. Those were some wild times generally in good ol' Bonner Springs Kansas. At my particular high school at least. For some reason, the general student body had gotten into this wave of riotous vandalism and shocking unruliness. We were frequently breaking vials of stink bombs in the hallway. We'd even had a few kids light small July 4th style smoke bombs in the halls. We'd seen some spray painting and various other defacements of the lockers and walls. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like the students were upset and we were just trying to break shit. Maybe just being kids... So it was in that environment that my buddy got hold of this book - the mythical book, that gave us the key to make the biggest baddest smoke bomb possible. After those initial experiments went well my buddy decided to go ahead and make a large one - big enough to fill the whole school up with smoke.

He used a Coca-Cola can as a mold and filled that sucker about a quarter of the way up. He used the birthday candle delay fuse and we went ahead and took it to school. My mom was driving us to school those mornings, and she later found out about this and said, "I was an accomplice!" We were going on a field trip that day, so the plan was to let this thing off and then jump on the getaway bus and go to our field trip. The back hallway of our school had a little alcove where the restrooms were, and a couple of water fountains on either side. Our vice principal was keeping watch as usual, but was distracted. I got a drink of water as my friend knelt down, placed the bomb and lit the candle. We casually walked away, taking a lap around the school to wait for it to go off. As we rounded the corner to come back into that main hall, we saw complete havoc unfolding. Kids were running all over the place. Blinding white smoke was everywhere. The water fountain itself was engulfed in a pillar of flame 4 feet high. There was a wave of people all headed out of the building- we just joined the flow and headed out. That damn thing had filled the entire school with thick smoke - it was insane. I can't remember if we actually went on that field trip or not... This little prank had gotten quickly and completely out of hand. Our conspiratorial joy of victory and humor faded to a gnawing fear that we would be caught. This was far bigger than we intended. We managed to avoid prosecution- my buddy did have a night in juvenile detention, but they didn't have enough to make a case on him. He didn't talk about it at all for like 7 years - till the statute was up. And even then he didn't ever bring it up. So that was our dance with the devil that was the Anarchist Cookbook. We put it away and never got it out again. It wasn't the last time one of us set the school on fire though... that story another time maybe.

Come in close friends, this one has to be told quietly... we wouldn't want the authorities to hear...

(story in alt text)

#TheCampfire #naiveteismyforte

Thanks Dwight! The fire is lit today at #TheCampfire , check out all the cool stories and add your own, we’re always looking for good stories.

#TheCampfire #EastCoastKin #ArtChallenges #prompt #storyteller #writing #ECK

not seen the old graveyard nearby and even though I have photographed the tree many times, I hadn’t seen the symbol until he pointed it out. He has been tramping through these woods since the 80’s and told me many stories, like how the little beach at trail end, now a cove, was once a point with many trees far out in what is now water. Erosion is ever changing our shorelines and what we see present day may be a distortion. We sat on the bench talking about the hidden graveyards and things each of us thought we had only found, but had been discovered by each of us. You don’t often come across people who share your wanderlust for hidden woods treasure, but when you do, it validates your excitement for finding out things from the past that may be off the beaten path and lost to history.

#TheCampfire
#EastCoastKin
Look closely and you will spy the all seeing eye carved in this tree. I recently met a guy on the trail and ended up spending a couple of hours showing him secret spots that I had found and he doing the same for me. We had both been to the dead cedars, but he had ⬇️

Next we canoed two sections of the north branch of the Manistee and then westward for an exhilarating run on the Pine. Afterwards, feeling strong and daring, we decided to add a new river to the expedition, the Sturgeon, the fastest river in Michigan’s lower peninsula. At the canoe livery we were informed that we needed to be “expert” to canoe the Sturgeon and after giving each other a quick, unsure glance acknowledged “we were!!!” From the first bend in the river we knew this was a different animal. The currents trapped us in a circular, downward motion much like spiraling down the bathroom drain. Passersby included tubers laughing and we had three kayakers on our flank. We soldiered on until coming to a huge tree trunk stretched across the river with only a small passageway through. At this point, Tom decided to pause to let the kayakers move ahead as they’d dumped and bottlenecked our one open path downstream. We maneuvered the canoe alongside the tree trunk and Tom bent down to tighten his shoelaces. The canoe began to bump along the log causing a swinging motion. As I tried to stabilize the canoe by holding both sides firmly, Tom told me to quit fidgeting. I yelled at him to stop tying his shoes and “splash” into the black, murky water we went! I had an old windbreaker tied around my waist and as the knot began to loosen the coat slithered down my hips and wrapped around my legs. I clung to the log for dear life as the current grabbed my legs pulling them under the tree trunk and parallel to the water. Panic set in! Tom gently persuaded me into making my way along the log to the riverbank. Then grabbing handfuls of dirt, tree roots and spiders I hauled myself out of the drink with Tom’s help. What a way to have fun! Strangely this did not “dampen” our enthusiasm as we’ve continued exploring via canoe.

“Drama in Real Life”
Around the Next Bend
#TheCampfire 🚣

Sometime during retirement my husband, Tom, and I planned a canoe trip in Michigan. Our first stop was the scenic Au Sable River near Roscommon. With Tom kneeling in the back like a French trapper we were off to a good start.

Today, #TheCampfire! Grab a log and sit down, tell us a tale, share a memory, burn a marshmallow.... It's free form! 💙

I was thinking about how I'm excited, but not THAT excited by this weeks space mission, surely I should be hanging on every second? But then this is not my first Moon rodeo, I have vivid memories when I was 10yrs old of the excitement of the first moon landing, staying awake for as long as I could overnight hiding under the covers so my parents couldn't hear my radio (of course they knew what I was doing but were happy to indulge the added excitement of the secrecy) and smuggling the radio into school, a select group of nerdy kids all now sitting at the back of the class each with a radio covered by a jumper pinned to our ears (of course our teacher knew what we were doing but was happy to indulge the independent enthusiasm of discovery - she probably had a radio in her desk 😄) No longer a school girl I don't think we should be attempting to colonise outer space, we should be putting our efforts into keeping the amazing planet we already have habitable for all nature, but the science, resource, intelligence and effort that has gone into sending humans into space is still incredible and exciting and the benefits of that all that learning, much now decades old still reaches far into our current lives. Now....back to the live tracker....... Photo of an Imperial Shag - a large Black and white bird with pink feet - landing on what looks like a barren piece of land but is infact an area of last years nests. It is vertically upright - its feet in a flat position for landing and its neck bent with its eyes and beak pointing downwards to spot the exact place

Imperial Shag #FalklandIslands

Eat your heart out #NASA I have perfected the perfect vertical moon landing.
I was thinking about how I'm excited about the #Moon mission but ... #TheCampfire story in Alt

#BirdOfTheDay #RareEncounter (for me - lifer) #birds #BirdsSeenIn2026 #EastCoastKin #ArtYear

The music was written by Tom O'Horgan, who staged the Broadway production of "Hair". It featured such unforgettable show stoppers like a song called "Joe's Liver" with actors in costumes depicting Joe's liver and liver enzymes were running around the stage chasing a bottle of alcohol. It was terrible (and that's being kind!) The show was produced by Adela Holzer who had a long history of both producing broadway shows and swindling people out of money. She somehow got this turd up and running. We did previews and after the opening, played 3 performances. After the third performance, they ran out of money to pay us. There was supposed to be a few weeks salaries for all us union members to cover us incase the show went bust. She had somehow never done that. After the 3rd performance she had the entire company onstage and came out pleading with us to keep the show going and that she was David Rockefeller's secret wife and showed us a framed photo of him and waved around a bank statement showing she had 1,000,000 in an account and the money just needed a few days to clear. 2 days later, she was arrested while making a call in a pay phone booth on the upper east side. She was on her way to the airport with a suitcase full of money she stole from the investors..... She spent time in prison and passed away in 2020 in southeast Florida.

In 1989 I was hired by "Red" Press to play keyboards in one of the biggest messes in Broadway history, Senator Joe. This was an acerbic, scathing and sarcastic look at the rise and fall of Senator Joe McCarthy. More in the alt text of the first photo #thecampfire #broadway #musicsky #newyorkcity

#TheCampfire is tomorrow! Do you have you stories ready?!

Good morning, Susan! ☕✨

We had another heat wave the past few days, but today will be the last day, then it's back to normal temperatures and *maybe* some light rain.

Enjoy your day of books, reading and writing! Looking forward to #TheCampfire this Tuesday! ✨☕📚✍️💫

intro to my upcoming #TheCampfire story:

When I was a freshman in high school, my buddy found a copy of the anarchist cookbook. Now that is a manual on how to create some legitimate chaos, there are parts in that book that tell you how to improvise..

#EastCoastKin #naiveteismyforte

#TheCampfire 🔥
First Tuesday
April 7, 2026
Food Food Food
Care for loved ones
Miss you Jimmy
Adventurous women
Around the next bend
Tree houses
Schwan’s truck
Youthful sneak outs
Step forward
Tell your story ~
fabulous moments
simple days
It’s all important
to the fabric of us
OUR EARS ARE OPEN

@pmgibbs.bsky.social

After reading all the restaurant stories around the #thecampfire this morning. I ended up heading out to breakfast. There aren’t a ton of restaurant options in little Beattyville, KY, but we do have Herman’s Brew.

There were a lot of tales of food and restaurants around #thecampfire yesterday. I’m reading the stories with my coffee. It’s all making me very hungry 😆

I missed #thecampfire entirely yesterday, so I’m sitting out here in front of the coals with my morning coffee…and now I’m hungry

The popularity of #thecampfire proves it!

Fantastic photo! I love looking at my family’s old family photos. As far as pretending to be something your not, for the next #thecampfire maybe I’ll tell the story of the time I let someone talk me into telling people we were accomplished horseback riders. We were absolutely not. 🤦‍♀️

For many years my very favorite restaurant was Horn of the Moon Cafe formerly on Langdon Street in Montpelier, Vermont. It's been gone a long time now and that's a sad tale. But oh how the food glows in my memory. My favorite had to be the enormous chef's salad with every veggie you can name plus avocado and crispy tempeh cubes. It was on a huge plate piled a good six inches deep at the middle. And don't get me started on the bbq seitan sandwich. Best and messiest thing ever. I smile to recall, one needed to have a full hour lunch break or more to eat there. It didn't matter how busy they were or not, they had a slow but steady pace and you simply couldn't run in and grab something. But oh was it worth it. If anyone has a time machine....

I know I'm late to #TheCampfire but I see there are still a few embers burning. And who the heck left that squishy marshmallow on the ground, I almost stepped on it! Anyhoo earlier @pmgibbs.bsky.social shared a tale of a beloved restaurant she misses & I thought I'd do the same. Sweet dreams kids.

Photo of the sky tonight, at sunset. A soft blue with pink waves, and a hint of yellow on the right side. Deciduous trees are in front of evergreen trees and they are all backlit. Today marks the 4 month anniversary of my husband’s stroke, and today we celebrated his survival by going to the library, getting some lunch, and going to a grocery store. It was the first time he walked through a grocery store, second time going to the library, and maybe 5th time dining out since his stroke. We met a kind woman at the library and meeting and talking with her made his day! I’m not exactly sure what I expected things to be like 4 months post stroke, but today was a very good day!

Tonight’s sky colors 💙🩷💛
#TheCampfire
See alt text for what I am remembering today…

Hey Petie, I’ve been away for months. Life has been tough over here. The toughest time I’ve ever had. There’s a story that needs to come out round #TheCampfire one day. I’m just not ready to tell it yet. For now, I’m focusing on the wisdom written on this old bench of yours 💙

A great #TheCampfire story!
Check out the stories so far today at the hashtag

#TheCampfire
How many times I’ve been by this bench, after all these years and now a sign appears!

During lunch, I’d be sharing my time with my MIL while she watched soap operas. I always hated those things, but before long, I was totally hooked which continued for years. Although I was married and now had a couple of children, I developed a silly crush on one of the soap opera actors who had thick, dark eyebrows and piercing blue eyes. I felt so ridiculous daydreaming about this actor. Flash forward about 20 years, when I was working out at a remote gym next to the Burbank airport. A man approached me and asked if we knew each other. He looked sort of familiar to me, but I was certain I hadn’t met him. We became casual acquaintances, and it finally occurred to me why he looked familiar: he was the actor I had a crush on! Never in my life did I think I would actually meet this person, let alone have him approach me. The actor was Brian Bloom who played Dusty Donovan on “As the World Turns.” This image includes three smaller images of the actor Brian Bloom. The two on the left are from his days playing Dusty Donovan on 'As the World Turns,' and the image on the right might be when he was about the same age as when I met him. When I met him, he was wearing a bandana on his head and was wearing sweats. He also had a slight beard, as in this photo. The most striking thing about him was his black hair, heavy black eyebrows and piercing blue eyes. He also has a chiseled chin and nose. Later in life he portrayed several superheroes.

#TheCampfire

I was pregnant with my first child and working on a fixer-upper house in San Diego that was to be home for our new family. Until the house was ready, we stayed with my in-laws next door for several months. (continued in alt)

I’m sitting on a bench on Roanoke sound as I write this. Military jets are in the air, one after another, not usual.

#TheCampfire
Tomorrow is the 4 year anniversary of arriving here. I’ve been in a stasis, not having real responsibilities, but what was fine at the beginning is now an impediment to growth. While the throes of grief brought me here, I’m coming out of the cocoon and I’m ready to venture as an adult.

March 3 2018. A date in my memory because of the amount of steps l did on this day.There had been snowy weather, so it was an opportunity for some photographs. What l hadn’t counted on was my own foolishness. I returned home, exhausted, tired and wondering why l had not stopped earlier.
#TheCampfire

@pmgibbs.bsky.social started #TheCampfire for us to share our #stories every month on the first Tuesday. I always remember something from my childhood but you can tell any story. Use the tag. Swap some yarns. It's a good time!