I have been away for a few days because my computer was down and I needed to get a friend to fix it. Then on Sunday, my four year old son propelled a stone full force into my left eye. So reading has not been easy. Thanks for all the stories and posts.
Tinker, you may know that I live in Germany. I really liked your story, because it is the simple resonant image which can carry across even to a child the way that another child perceived the beginning of that enormous tragedy. "I stopped being invited to parties" is the sort of line you can build a song around and it is the sort of thing you look for when you try to get across someone else's character. Jerry Rasmussen does it it "Old Blue Suit" and George (El Greko) does it in "Old Sailors Don't Know How To Cry". Plenty of food for thought here. I hope some more stories come in. I'm listening.