All Comments on 'The Road Not Chosen'

You've taken the melting pot that has become the USA, told the story with care, to let us understand what our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents went through to get where we are today.

All I can really say is THANK YOU

Woody this was a wonderful story. It really made me feel like I was watching her and traveling right along the way. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work.

I have to admit that I kept waiting for the proverbial "shoe to drop", but Rosie managed to continue encountering helpful and protective people. And the ending, when her father arrived, was a very reasonable and appropriate response. Not particularly kind, but certainly justified.

Excellent writing.

That $50 given to Margaret/Rosie in 1894, would be worth about $1,200 in today's money. The point is that it wasn't as chintzy as it might seem to most readers. Of course, in 1934 (approximately when her father showed up on her doorstep), it was worth about $800. Either way, the comparative differences do impact the story.

It seems that today's citizens and most illegals would rather sit around and complain that the government isn't doing enough to make their life better. This story brings out what our fore bearers went through without complaining and grumbling about their lot in life.

We used to be a nation of can do individuals. Now it seems that we have become a nation of special interests who do nothing but complain and expect others mostly the government to do for them. The Empire State building was built in 18 months. Today it would take longer than that to get the plans through all the government agencies who need to approve the plan then as can be seen at the World Trade Center more than 10 years to even get started on the project.

This is repeated all over this nation, regulations, taxes, government intervention, special interest intervention and the country comes to a screeching halt.

Thank you for a wake up call, this is a great story, that needs a larger audience.

The story began with a lot of interesting details, so I was preparing for another of your epoch-length stories. But all of a sudden, Rosie was a grown adult and in the next paragraph had grandchildren. I would have preferred learning about those skipped over years a bit more.

You went to considerable length to explain why her father treated her the way he did, and I appreciated knowing that. But when Rosie gave him the middle finger when he finally arrived again in her life, it was totally out of the character you had developed. Although you never described it, we were left with the thought she must have been a loving mother and grandmother, based on her childhood we did know about. So, how could she have been so cruel to her aged and infirmed father?

If you explained the source of the title, I missed it. What road did she not choose? Surely, not to take in her father.

You talked about the passengers having to cook their own meals on the fantail. I've never heard of that before. How did they carry pots and pans, plus raw food in their suitcases? Did they each build a fire and out of what, or did the ship provide open fires for them? Two or three sentences about that would have cleared up a mystery I'll forever have about my ancestors.

Finally, an editor or just another person could have eliminated some of the nagging bits. "...500 hundred people"? Some missing quotes, and 1st and 3rd person in the same paragraph.

These comments are not intended as criticisms, but rather as suggestions for improvements. I have always enjoyed your stories, but this one troubled me.

A long journey with a happy ending. People forget the struggle and hardship that was endured to get to this point. I have not. I find it deeply disturbing that liberals are rewriting our history books. Anything they find offensive has to go. They also want to erase God from everything. Half of the people in this country seem to have the same mindset that we have always fought against. They won't be happy until they turn it into some sideways version of what they think it is supposed to be. If we want America to continue as it has we need to fight the bastards. Woodmanone, your mention of different views of history brought this on, your fault. :) The author does stories from the past very well.

The other shoe dropping paranoia comes to us because we expect an exciting story full of violence, but this story follows the normal history of about 99 out of a 100 immigrants to the USA. We would not nowadays make a film about it but it is worth looking at and thinking about. Remember that there were successive waves of immigrants and often the helping hands were there....

Sorry Woodman you have a great story line, one that should be told, but there are too many historical inaccuracies. Empress Liners were the Property of Canadian Pacific, and the Empress of India was on the Britain to the far East run, and then from the far East to Vancouver.

Passenger ships to America of the time were far too big to leave from the port of Bristol which was approached by a river that was quite shallow at the time,It was for more far more likely to be Liverpool or Southhampton for departure.

Steerage passengers of the time travelled in cabins with up to 4 of the same sex sharing. They did not prepare their own food, but ate in the ships dining room.

As a single officer her father would not have been permitted to take his daughter into an active war zone. If he had been some depot wallah going to Capetown and had been married then possibly he could have taken his family. Normal proceedure would be for the girl to attend a boarding school in England, which would be paid for by the army as part of her fathers pay and allowances. Normal procedure for families going to war zones was that it was not permitted and was still the same when I went through a similar posting in the fifties

I enjoyed the story, but we still don't use kilometres now in the UK, never mind in 1894!

despite some problems with grammar and a few inacuracies in the travel facts and measurements.

A WONDERFUL TALE, LOVINGLY TOLD. IGNORE THE CHOWDER HEADS WORRYING OVER DETAILS OF LITTLE OR NO CONSEQUENCE. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Brilliant story, well told.

deJay

Woody that is a powerful little tale

About a powerful little woman

Who had a remarkably positive trip through trying circumstances -

Many mature, competent adults could not make that trip that well today - and - no respectable parent would force a child to endure it without proper escort - not and expect her to be seen again.

Children can be amazingly self reliance when push comes to shove. However we Americans and the British were both using the "British" system of weights and measures at that time. Rosie's trip was all done in miles.

Woodman, about all I can say about this story is....Job Well Done. Thank you for a truly emotional story.

This was a change from your normal, but maybe not, a young child on their own with only foster care. Please this is not about all foster parents nor all social workers but it is my opinion that many parents just want the extra money but keep the foster child separate from rest of family and the social workers need more children for the same reason. If you need another helper always hire 2 and then you become boss. I would never take another child unless it was separated from all government control.

you however have written a delightful story

Ed Grocott

edgrocott@gmail.com

Victorian women tended to be thought of as fragile flowers. That is not necessary so. There were a lot of strong willed independent minded ladies amongst the fragil flowers. My Grandmother 1885 at age 16 disagreed with something her Father wanted her to do and on her own without telling her family took a ship to Canada, ended up in California, became a RN in 1900 and a pretty good investor in the stock market. Frankly I wished I had half her intestinal fortitude.

you obviously understand cattle but it seems that you have never been to sea. the "propellers on a ship are called screws. I am rereading every one of your stories again including the newest one from 2016. I don't know who lays out your works but you should teach teach them to count. this is (I think )my 4th reading and I started at the top.

Ed Grocott

edgrocott@gmail.com

The English use miles, have alway used miles and their form of measurement (inches, feet, miles, acres and the like) was the defacto standard the world over until the rest of the world chaned over to the metric system.

I haven't read all the comments to see if some one else commented on it. Outside of that on glaringly obvious mistake, it's a great read.

Britain stopped using the Imperial system of wieghts and measures in 1971 when it singed up to the ISO (Internatonal Standards Organisation) system, also known as the Systeme Internationale. The SI system uses a number of base units with names similar to those of Napoleons Metric system. The actual units are all decimal and designed to make calculations using more than one unit as simple as possible. The Metric system died with Napoleon. Other European countries had their own systems, I do not know anything about them.

It was a nice heart-felt story, but one detail blew it out of the water. You made a big fuss about the metric conversion, but Great Britain did not abandon English measure (miles) for metric (kilometers) until 1965. Please check more carefully.

Echoing the previous comment, pity to spoil another of your enjoyable stories with the imperial/metric error. Us uk oldies, still use imperial units, in this era the whole old empire would use imperial units. No matter still enjoyed your work.

The word you wanted was province, not providence.

As more than one person has commented, I made a mistake with the metric system thing.. And apparently the ship in question really belonged to some other company than in the story.

I know I always ask for constructive comments and I do mean it, but give a guy a break. In spite of my mistakes this is a story about a remarkable woman.

This woman is the grandmother of a friend and when he told me the story I had to write about it. I know (now) that I made mistakes but it takes nothing away, or at least it shouldn't, from this wonderful woman.

Last point...My friend and his grandmother loved the story.

Woodmanone

each and everyone will find trials and tribulations on their journey, TK U MLJ LV NV

You make one empathize with young Rosie.

...a very little knowledge, gleaned very long ago, is a very dangerous thing...

One particular “anonymous” makes assertions about the metric system being Napoleon’s invention or at any rate dating to his reign... and then tries to tell us that the metric system has been replaced.

Quote: “The SI system uses a number of base units with names similar to those of Napoleons Metric system. The actual units are all decimal and designed to make calculations using more than one unit as simple as possible. The Metric system died with Napoleon.”

What a load of bollocks!

I’m not sure if this is just another example of stupidity, or a failing of the educational system - I suspect a combination of the two.

Follow this link (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system) for some real facts about the metric system which essentially is the de facto standard of measurement worldwide today, except for small pockets of resistance which are even now crumbling under the onslaughts of globalisation and international trade.

Keep it up, Woody - despite the (minor) unintended errors wrt metrication and shipping lines/names, your writing entertains.

How many of today’s entitled little millennials would have the guts to undertake Rosie’s voyage under similar conditions without all their electronic assistants and cellular networks, or would be able to write even one full page of narrative without boring their readers to distraction? That is, if their readers could decipher even half of the misspelled words...

Take it from whence it comes.

And laugh...

I have grown to like your writing.. You mention in this story that history is written as perceived by the writer...

Great Britain is in 2019 still coming to grips with a metric system. Although you americans seem to have muddled it all up ..

A Mile is still a mile in the UK. And a stone still has 14 lbs in it !

That slip up spoiled the story for me... as others have commented. Australia used the British Imperial measurement system until 1970s and the British monetary system until it changed to dollars on 14th February 1966 so we were well aware of how the British system worked making the error stand out..

UK still uses miles.

An army officer in those days probably was at least middle class and neither him or his family would have lived terraced houses.

The American war of independence is hardly mentioned in British history, because it was supremely unimportant in Europe. It was all about beating France then and had been for the previous few hundred years.

Still a very interesting story thank you.

As always Woody Another great story

I have just been reading the comments below and find them disturbing. Woody since you didn't present this as a factual account but rather an entertaining yarn I feel most of the comments are unnecessarily rude. You have really met your goal I was entertained.

mrbee223@outlook.com

Thanks for the read.

another great story by WOODMANONE .I have his western stories great & have read them at least 3 or more times. nit pickers are A$$ holes dig a hole then pull the dirt over you. those who's name shows up click on them & most never wrote a story.

The English invented the imperial measurement system.

The French the metric system.

It was a century before the English succumbed to metric system.

Annoying.

I usually don't comment on my stories or answer the anonymous comments but this time I will. To Anonymous from 2/28 and others, if your main take you have from this story is that I screwed up with the timing of the metric system you missed the whole premise of the story. This story is based on a friends grandmother and she is an amazing woman. I always ask for constructive critiques and comments. I hope they will be about the characters, plot line or the story itself. Sorry I made a mistake in the story. If you will send me your address I will gladly refund your money.

to all who nit pick bend over and stick your head up your A$$ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't blame her for her attitude towards her father but still sad. It would have been nice if she had kept in touch with the folks from the boat.

You took a long time going over minutiae of the journey, then skipped entire decades including how she compared America to England, her permanent abandonment by her Father, her marriage etc, going straight to her Father arriving like a bad penny, if that’s the extent of the tale told you by your friends Grandmother I can understand it, if not that’s a big gap in her life you’ve just glossed over.

I’m not going to pick holes in the details you got wrong in this tale, but I am going to say that as a Brit there were more a couple of glaring mistakes written about our country, these mistakes come from writing about a place you aren’t familiar with, (I see you’re in Arizona) please get a beta/proof reader from a country you aren’t familiar with but are writing about in the future, there are plenty of non-USA citizens here on Lit you could contact if needed, myself included.

Many thanks for writing and posting, cheers Ppfzz. (U.K.)

Nice story. The ending was perfect.

For your information.

Great Britain uses miles for distances

Great Britain includes Scotland. The shorter distance would be England

In the 1890s sail was no longer used on Atlantic liners

The empress of India in 1891 was the Canadian Pacific far east liner.

An interesting story, but so many historical inaccuracies that the rest became hard to believe.