Of Cash and Myths by Bonnie Le Hamilton

The other day as I was driving home from work, I spotted a couple of kids with a lemonade stand near the corner of Walnut and Jefferson. It was a good place to set up. Jefferson is a major throughway, and trees line the sidewalk in that spot. Or rather the parking lot to the building on the corner of Walnut and Jefferson has a row of trees between the lot and the sidewalk.

I am very well aware of this because my car is having issues with overheating. I generally have to stop on my way home from work to let my car cool down; I prefer to do it under those trees. Its cooler.

So anyway, I pulled into the lot and parked under one of the trees and those poor boys thought I stopped to buy a cup of lemonade. Too bad, I hate discouraging such young entrepreneurs, but I rarely carry cash. I should.

But it got me wondering how anyone could have a lemonade stand, or a yard sale for that matter when very few people carry cash these days.

I guess with a yard sale folks can plan on having cash on hand before they leave, but with a lemonade stand, I never know about them until I see them.

Then again, I don’t read the paper, so I only get news of yard sales when I see the signs or drive past them. And I never stop because I have no cash on me. But other people were stopping. So clearly some people still carry cash.

Actually, I know my sister-in-law carries cash. She does that so she doesn’t go over budget. I guess a few people do it that way. I don’t. To each his own.

In other news, I finally read the Percy Jackson series. The trouble is I had a feeling of déjà vu while reading it. A lot of it felt familiar like I’d read it before. The only trouble is that I haven’t read it before! I know I haven’t.

At any rate, I have read the series, or at least the first five books. And now I am trying to figure out when I could have read them before.

Problem number one is that the copywrite date is from early this century. If I had read it that recently I would remember when and where.

Problem number two is that it can’t be very old because of the mention of things like cell phones and a model of car which didn’t come out until like the nineties. I most certainly couldn’t have read this series as a child. Cell phones were not a thing then.

Looking the series up online, it is clearly from this century. And newer than the Harry Potter series and I first read the first book around the time it hit the US.

And as much as I like Harry Potter, I think I like Percy Jackson a little bit better. Mostly because I liked the subject matter way back in third grade when we did a section all about Roman and Greek myths.

I do use a Greek myth in one of my stories.

Rick Riordan uses most of them and brings them into the modern age. It is quite an interesting take on the myths actually.

Anyway, it got me wondering if any other authors have used old myths for their modern stories. There have to be a few because of course, Thor and all those are part of Norse mythology. Modern stories of them do exist.

I think there are modern stories of other legends or myths from other cultures, the problem would be, that all I have ever studied is Roman and Greek myths. None of the others were mentioned in the course I had way back in third grade.

Technically, I have heard or read about a few others since then, but I seem to gravitate towards Greek myths myself considering that is the only kind of myth I have used in my writing.

I can also say one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek The Original Series is the one with Apollo in it.

Now that I think about it, that episode combined with the lessons I had in third grade may explain my liking of Greek myths so much.

So, do you like any myths? Have you considered, or even used, at least one myth in your writing?

You don’t have to make it as prevalent as Riordan does. I don’t. I barely mention the myth I use in my story, but it is there, without it the group my main characters are a part of wouldn’t exist.

Anyway, happy writing everyone!