Coming of Age by Ronald Mackay

22/4/2024

The next contribution to the Fiction category of the 2024 Creative Writing Showcase is from Ronald Mackay. He has been a regular contributor and long-time supporter of Fred's Blog, and I am always immensely grateful for his encouragement and support.

Ronald's latest story is called Coming of Age and you can read it here.

Ronald Mackay and his wife Viviana Galleno recently moved from Canada to the Netherlands and divide their time between Voorburg in South Holland and Buenavista del Norte on the north coast of Tenerife. Ronald is the author of “Fortunate Isle, a Memoir of Tenerife”, “A Tenerife con Cariño”, and “The Kilt Behind the Curtain”. His new book, this one of short stories, will appear in English later this year and in Spanish early in 2025.

- Viviana and Ronald April 2024 - Buenavista del Norte

6 Comments

Palmer Acheson

23/4/2024 04:44:43 am

This story was quite the emotional ride. Such small items for most readers; so much for the protagonists. "Coming of age" is a momentous rite of passage in a person's life, especially when that person has so few material possessions.

Ronald Mackay

23/4/2024 07:28:57 am

You capture the concept of the story exactly, Palmer. Since you know what this worl was like back when little meant a lot, you appreciate the sentiments of the protagonists. Thank you!
Ron

Nila Mendoza

26/4/2024 01:25:25 pm

In our Hispanic culture, at the time this story happened, telling a child that he had come of age meant having permission to do almost everything, except to continue dreaming and to continue being a child. That sentence implicitly carried the message that from that moment on, this boy, now a man, had obligations to the family and should forget any distraction that would separate him from that imposed responsibility.
They were hard times to be a girl or a boy, because the boy had to support the home whether he wanted to or not, and the girl had to find a husband because it was almost a sin not to.
You had the great opportunity to experience that Hispanic culture and also had the great ability to capture in a simple story with great human content, the essence of the meaning of that moment described. Description that, due to your great narrative, does not leave the reader indifferent, since the reader's heart cries with the characters for each feeling expressed.
¡En hora buena! Congratulations!
Nila

Ronald Mackay

26/4/2024 01:42:56 pm

You are right, Nila, I had the good fortune to live in such a culture in the 1960s when it was still practised. Times were hard and familiaed coped with the hardships as best they could, without complaint and with the best of intentions. While many of the difficulties that existed then have been eliminated and greater opportunities are availbale for young people, it is noteworthy that todays young people are not always appreciative of what they are offered neither do they always grasp the afdvantasges theat are within their reach. Thank you for letting me know that I capture the sentiments of a culture that I have had to invest a great deal in, in order to become familiar with it.

Susanne Waldmann

12/5/2024 01:01:00 pm

A Fanta and a Mars bar, probably consumed daily nowadays, back then, and for this particular boy, were a once-in a childhood occasion, representing its sweetness while giving strength to assume his lot in an adult's world. Loved your story, 'Orlando'

bill somerville

13/5/2024 09:28:48 pm

Very touching, I seem to remember Carlitos name coming up in an earlier book.

Coming of Age by Ronald Mackay

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