... the hood! At this site, my heart nearly stopped beating. I just stood, frozen as ice, watching the blue and orange flames whip at the sky. Sean was quick to accompany my side. Mortified, I turned to him and yelled, "What the hell am I going to do?!" Before I could properly finish the exclamation, the shop ... . I was about to ask Sean what he thought we should do to get down the mountain, when the shop owner chimed in with yet another answer. "I got a buddy who's a tow truck driver. He works the Pikes Peak area. I can call him up here if you want." At this gesture, the best I could get ...

• Word Count: 2061
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... night, and nothing was going on. We were just three guys sitting in a desolate apartment playing boring old NFL Blitz. My buddy Matt reluctantly suggested we just drop everything we were doing and head to Pismo. Without even thinking, my buddy Gook and I simply replied, "Sure why not". There is a truth to a spur of the moment decision like the one we had ... were. It was a good thing she came through. We got some food to eat and nearly filled the gas tank with the money we had left. The drive home was quick but I had to be at work in two hours. I then had thirty minutes to drop everyone...

• Word Count: 1127
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Automobile: An Overlooked Luxury Driving home for the weekend, taking a road trip across the country, going to the store across town at midnight for a quick snack: none of these simple tasks would be possible without the existence of the automobile. The ingenious work of a man named Henry Ford changed the scope of American life with ... get in my way. I no longer had to ride my bike in the blistering heat for a cherry slurpee. I could drive to the beach, or to the snow, or to my buddy's house, parent-willing of course. No car illustrates these fascinating qualities like The Ford Motor Co...

• Word Count: 1274
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... just turned 17, precisely 64 days before that fateful 28TH day of February 1983. Basketball season had just finished, and we had a week off before baseball practice would begin. My buddy Todd, who lives in Hawkins Bar with his parents, had been staying at my house since about January 4TH because of an enormous mudslide that had closed highway 299 about ... that it was pretty damn warm that day, around 87 degrees. I can feel the rays beaming down, not a cloud in the sky, which meant for a fast, dusty and oh so quick ride that as perfect for some high speed .road was dry, perfect for high...

• Word Count: 1241
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School