Kelly Cavanagh - another story

All Stories

Chapter 1 to 12

Latin Serenade
how I nearly lost my boots in Livingston

My Mother's Forks
how to become two people at the same time

Spelunking at the Post Office
how to get paid for having too much fun

Stump Farm Hippies
how it feels to be left all alone at the top of the world

Maggie's Revenge
white guy plays black music in an Australian bar in Japan

Sleeping in the Ocean
just imagine waking up dead

Couch from the Sky
always look all ways, left, right, down, and especially up

Sailing to Mexico
giving the wind something to do

The Sweet Smell of Excess
how to navigate being the cause of supreme disappointment

Rabbit Revenge
how I made my world debut with a brand new shoe and a dirty one too

Martini Sunset
please remove small children before starting machine

Night Ride to Heriot Bay
got me to the gig on time

Chapter 13 to 24

Fly Thai
up and away and a war breaks out

Rock Star for a Day
how to dress for excess

Geaux NOLA
where every day is as different as the next

Ferry Dock Shock
beware the stranger who calls you friend

Live House of the Rising Sun
how to properly say ja ne be good

Green Green Jeans of Home
the right hand does the left hand knows

Shasta Trestle
what would make someone who seems perfectly sane run headlong as fast as he can at a train

Very Electric Mandolin
how I nearly died in prison without ever doing anything wrong

Go Go Kart
how I nearly got a grilling

Freaky Tiki Hut
how to holiday without going anywhere

Fiery Cortina
how I nearly set a city on fire

Rock the Old School
how to get them dancing in the aisles

Chapter 25 to 36

Thai Landing
disappearing in phuket

Lago Life
sleeping under the volcanos

Real Fantasy Band
cosmic folk acid rock jazz fusioneers

Contact Low
through a lens darkly

Dearth of a Salesman
water filter gone akilter

Icebergs on Akpatok
the tide waits for no man

Shopping Spree
how I hit a homer
but nearly got called out at home base

Head Rock Holiday
what to do when a real princess drops by

A Spot of Bother
how to impress a room full of bankers

Maui Owie
how I got water on the brain

Music + One
one man bandleader

Gone Tiki
hair of superficiality

I don't know where to start so I'll just go from the beginning.
   Telling these stories for many years, then I began writing them down for my two sons. You see, my dad had been the greatest story teller, but whenever I asked if he'd let me write one down or tape record him he declined. "I don't know any stories", he'd say. I have only vague recollections of Mouse in my Beer, Fork in the Forehead, or the time he surfaced in front of a fisherman down east with his brand new scuba gear on. Poor fisherman thought my dad to be the devil himself, and quietly reeled in his line, picked up his gear and left, never to return to that fishing hole again. Anyway, I do not have any of these stories to pass on to my sons. So they're getting my stories.
   I have told these stories many times. The challenge for me? To make it work on paper, without the benefit of my deep and mellifluous voice, unerring sense of comic timing, scintillating wit and facial expressions to work with. Half monologue, half travelog, half shaggy dog, like I always say, three halves are better than two. I enjoy revisiting these experiences immensely, and it's good for my brain and memory as well.
   Using American English spellings here for most words. Casting out U has been a lifelong pursuit for me, as nearly everyone wants to add one to my last name. So it's personal. I have also deleted all hyphens. I don't want to see these minus signs all over the page, it looks cleaner without them. I write out numbers, digits shout.
   Writers influential to me include Mark Twain, Stephen Leacock, Evelyn Waugh, Spike Milligan, Gerald Durrell, Kurt Vonnegut, and later writers Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams. Also much liked the moose, Bullwinkle.

You can click on drop down menus under another story to get to story time
Or click here for chapter 1 to 12 or chapter 13 to 24 or chapter 25 to 36