Friday, February 15, 2013

Email from my cousin, Pearly

"I was talking to Tante Toni and she rented the cottage on the beach for a month.  Your dad would come on weekends."

So that means it was Mother and the children, with Tante Toni and my cousin, Anja, and my father on the weekends.  I will call Tante Toni tomorrow and ask her the year.

I took a memoir writing class from Patricia Hampl at the University of Minnesota.  She said that the best time to write your memoir was when you were thirty-eight and still remembered the details of your childhood.

So, all you thirty-eight year olds out there, start writing those memories down.  Write them on post-its, or cards or on the back of bills or in a notebook.  Set a timer and write five minutes a day.  Throw it in a shoe box.  Try not to lose the shoe box.

3 comments:

  1. When I was thirty-eight, wow that seems so long ago, my youngest was turning 8 and my oldest was turning 15 so I doubt my memory was very good, I was too busy trying to make it through the days and weeks. And making memories with my own children. I do like your suggestion of writing it down and throwing them in a box. I am the youngest of eight and now I sometimes wonder if my memories are mine or just remembering what my older siblings remember about those days. I am loving your current posts with all the pictures and stories.

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  2. And yet here you are--not 38--remembering. Like Linda I was too consumed by my daily life to think much about anything. I think there is something about growing older that actually helps you zero in on what mattered.

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