Because today is World Hello Day, our Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is Hello. If you decide to write a post based on this week’s prompt, be sure to go back here and share your link so everyone can see how you interpreted things! Here’s what I did with it…

How many times in a day do you think the average person says, “Hello”?

I guess it would depend on the kind of job that average person has. Do they have to answer a phone on a regular basis? Are they in a line of work that requires them to greet individuals in a public setting?

Personally, I’d say I use the greeting no more than three or four times a day. It really depends on how many clients I have to meet with throughout the day. I don’t receive a lot of phone calls and will often let them go to voicemail if at all possible.

It’s funny… whenever I think of the word hello, I’m reminded of a movie from the early ’90s called Crazy People. It starred Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah and was partially filmed in my hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. Moore plays an advertisement executive who suffers from a nervous breakdown and begins creating ads that are brutally and inappropriately honest. Because of this, he winds up checked into a psychiatric hospital where he meets a lovable cast of misfits and ne’er-do-wells.

One of his fellow patients, played by David Paymer, is a man who can only say, “Hello.” That’s the only word that comes out of his mouth for most of the film. Eventually, he is able to expand his vocabulary, but still throws in a “hello” randomly and out of context. He also helps to compose a song that praises the word hello.

It’s not a great movie. But when a movie is at least partially filmed in the area, we like to latch on and make a big deal out of it. Same goes for What About Bob? (filmed at Smith Mountain Lake) and Dirty Dancing (filmed at Mountain Lake… yes, it’s different from Smith Mountain Lake). This is not a recommendation to watch Crazy People. But if you’re so inclined, I think I saw it listed as free to watch if you have Paramount Plus.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week and shared your links! Please visit their blogs, give them a follow, and take a look at how they interpreted the prompt.

1. Paul
2. gigglingfattie
3. Catherine
4. yoyoliving
5. Ben Berwick

Be sure to come back on Wednesday for the next Sunday Scribblings prompt! Encourage other bloggers to challenge themselves with the prompt! Remember that there are no rules for what you write, other than responding to the prompt! You can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, biography, instruction… it’s all up to you!

Feature Photo by Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash