Take My Character - Please!

Last night, I happened to be in a hospital room with my mom and stepfather, and a nursing student joined us for a little while.  He had a list of questions for his patient, and we all had a nice chat, finding out he shared a hometown with SF, and of course with my mom he had in common that she had some nurses’ training Lo Many Moons Ago, and that in many ways she’s been a frustrated nurse ever since.  If it weren’t for the dagnab studying, by golly – she’d have been a stupendous caregiver, if she does say so herself.

I haven’t blogged a ton about my mom, but she is one of those surprising Little Southern Ladies who can be thoroughly awesome when she puts her mind to it.  Last night, her mind was to it.

She was talking about nurses’ straining circa, I guess, about 1960 or so (I believe it was before her career days, but am not sure how soon out of high school her brief curriculum ensued).  It seems the doctor coordinating the student nurses was a minimal fellow – no taller, no bigger, than my mom.

Mom, by the way, is 5’2” and had the nickname Razor Butt in those days.  She was noticeably TINY.  So this guy – not a bruiser.

She described to our friend the nursing student how this doctor would take them around, wearing his white coat and smoking a pipe (Oh the Places you could Smoke in that day and age … shew!), and concluded,

“He was a strutting little bantam.”



Let it be said, I could probably find a use or two for a strutting little bantam of a character – but, given my chosen eras, so many of these details would be lost.  To all my writerly pals, I implore you – find the place where the Strutting Little Bantam fits, because he’s a plot bunny of a story element I can’t do justice to, and he deserves justice.

Or, perhaps (particularly if you write humor) a little injustice?

I give him to you gratis – formed, unformed, strutting, pipe, lab coat, and all.  Use him in good health!

Or … as he’s a physician, after all … perhaps find some gripping ill health for him.  It’s your story!