Reminiscences: Musings in Memoir - Prompt #3

PROMPT #3 — RIDE

Well, I’ve got to run to keep from hiding
And I’m bound to keep on riding
And I’ve got one more silver dollar
But I’m not gon’ let ’em catch me, no
Not gon’ let ’em catch the midnight rider
from the lyrics to Midnight Rider

Ride: It’s a word with multiple interpretations and at least two grammatical identities; in the verb form it is both active and passive, and it can also be used as a noun. Ride is a thing you actively do — as in: ride a bike, ride a horse — and is also a thing you passively do — as in: go for a ride (as a passenger) in a car, or take a ride on a train. It is also a word that can have both positive and negative connotations. Riding the high – for example – is a descriptor used by addicts and adrenaline junkies to describe the pursuit of the never-ending carpet-ride feeling they get from what they do, but it is also used as a “Woo-hoo! Let’s keep this good thing going!” cheer from people who want to extend/continue their successes in business, sports, or finance.

There are, of course, various things you can ride in or ride on — cars, motorcycles, skateboards, bicycles, train compartments, blimps, airplanes, ferris wheels, roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, buses, trams, etc. — as well as different interpretations of the word in its various forms:

a rider is an attachment to legal forms, such as insurance, that either permits or excludes specific coverages
Ride ’em cowboy! (or cowgirl, as it were 😉 ) is an expression of enthusiasm
to be taken for a ride is to have been duped
when someone is riding your back it means they are on you nonstop – most often with verbal criticism or negative-reinforcement psychological force – and just will.not.let.up

In music, the Beatles sang Ticket To Ride (which just *might* lend itself to mondegreen-ish mis-hearing 😉 ), the band War put out Low Rider, Fog Hat drawled out their double-entendre Slow Ride, and more metaphorically, Twenty-One Pilots versed Ride. (And if music is your thing, I’d encourage you to also consider participating in Jae Lynn’s new meme Musically Ranting at her blog, Rantings of a Nonsensical Mind.)

In stories, the most famous ‘riding’ is probably Little Red Riding Hood. In the U.S., Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride is taught to elementary school children. On a darker literary note, Alfred Noyes’ narrative poem The Highwayman uses repetition of the word ‘riding’ in song-like chorus to emphasize each segment of the tale:

Click the stanza image for the entire poem. WARNING: It does not have a happy ending.

For the third prompt in the Reminiscences memoir project, please consider ‘ride’ (either literally or metaphorically).

Have you made a discovery, experienced an epiphany, or learned a life lesson while riding?
Do you have memories of riding on horseback?
Perhaps you’ve had the experience of being ridden hard and put away wet? (Heh.)
Or maybe you share Steppenwolf’s opinion of motorcycle riding:

The point of this writing project is to create new content by writing from your personal memories, with a focus on the form of memoir.

Prompts will be posted on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month through August 10th. The purpose of the prompts is simply to provide inspiration. You are welcome to use the prompt literally or figuratively, or as a jumping off point that leads you in another direction all together. You are also welcome to revisit past prompts as the project progresses. Your timing is your own, and adherence to the prompt{s} is not required.

To play:

Write a memoir-esque post.
Link your post either to this prompt or to the Reminiscences project description page. (Use of the badge is optional.)
Leave a comment below – you can use CommentLuv to create a live link to your post on my comment form – to let me know you’re playing.

If you’re not sure how to start or are unsure of how to approach your memoir writing, I encourage you to visit the bloggers who participated in writing for the previous prompt for inspiration:

Thanks also to Cindi at Moondance Pages who added her ‘wind’ memories to Prompt #1.

If you wrote something for Prompt #2 (or added to Prompt #1) over the past ten days and you don’t see your name above it means I don’t have your link. Please leave one for me and I will add your post! 🙂

For more information about this writing project, see here.

If you have additional questions, please let me know. 🙂