An eclectic collection, Joyride for Sale presents a compilation of short pieces from author Dennis Payton Knight. Some of the anecdotes are drawn from his experiences gathered during seventy years of living, while others are fictional exercises classified as fun and funny, and still others offer simple observations of the world.
Knight tells stories about his adult life and of growing up in Laramie, Wyoming, recalling how he devoured coconuts to solve an engineering dilemma in his short career as a male belly dancer; how he dueled a mean, green-eyed girl at bumper cars; and how he created a whole new set of curse words. Joyride for Sale presents lively conversations about bands marching in tutus, jazz music, honeybees, and punching cows.
Knight offers a collection of down-to-earth, wry, evocative, and optimistic narratives to help you ponder the meaning of life, celebrate the mysteries of space, and fall in love at least once a week.
...We vied for position at the entrance, and the arena master finally threw open the gate. I tore swiftly for the vessel I had picked, a sleek silver number that seemed already well positioned and ready for a worthy captain like me. In fact, I had been so intent on driving Silver Streak that I was unprepared to make another choice when I arrived to find a female combatant in a yellow dress already inserting herself a little indelicately, I might add, behind my wheel.
With my claim having been so rudely commandeered, I surveyed the field and found only one unattached vessel, a faded blue job jammed in a corner. Old Blue might not have been my first preference,but I leapt in anyway and readied myself for the contest. As we waited the start, I stubbornly held in view the girl in the yellow dress gripping the wheel of Silver Streak, her mean, green eyes running a pantheon of fiery expressions. She did not seem to notice me, but I was determined she soon would.
From My Time in the Arena
