transcribingmemory

The Reluctant Gatekeeper

In a way, I have become the gatekeeper of Babu’s memories. I don’t relish the responsibility. On her own, her memories both have abandoned her and hold her hostage. There is a lot she can no longer remember and even less she talks about and focuses on. Some things she obsesses about. One thing in…

January, 1939 Continued

Sometimes, not a lot happens to Babu in a month’s time. (Think about what a diary of mine would like like, if I ever wrote in one!) January, 1939 is a busy one, however. It was busy with small details that I could have easily over looked, like these two sentences somewhere midmonth: Mother had…

Yes, Harper, It Is Real.

There is a moment I want to write about for one reason and one reason only. I want to preserve it. My sister, Nicole, now comes over with her babies once a week to visit Babu. Jade is now almost 6 and Harper is now almost 3. (GAWD LORT IN HEAVEN! How did that happen?)…

Writing Wednesdays: Not a Routine, But Something Close?

I am participating in Camp Nanowrimo this month. What this is a mini – if you choose it to be – version of Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s a webpage, an online group, an organization, a movement! that inspires and supports writers to complete the rough draft of a novel…

January, 1939

The beginning to the New Year comes whether you are ready or not. This New Year’s day drops in on Babu alone. Got a book and an apple and a bed so I’m hopping to it – Her New Year’s night and day could have been worse. It was for Frank, who begins the new…

December, 1939

Writing about ice skating, getting colds, and “The holidays” in the summer heat is always ill fitting, but here it is, as chronology dictates: December, 1938! The end of another year. To catch everyone up and center ourselves, since I have been away for a few days: By this time in 1938: She has graduated…

On This Day in 193… Part Two

Well here they are. You gave me dates and now I will tell you what was happening in the world on that day in the mid 1930s. Actually, better yet, I will tell you what was happening in Babu’s world on that date. Rabbit Patch Diary asked for March 15th 1935: Friday, March 15, 1935…

Evading the Wool Suit is Easy if I’m Dreaming, or Writing

My life post teaching career has shifted incrementally but consistently since the big change. I’m not sure if it’s like aftershocks or more like when something settles back down after really being tossed around. It’s been exactly a year. Today is the last day of school and I never went back once, not to visit…

November, 1938

I’m still looking for dates! Give me a date that’s important to you and I’ll tell you what was happening on that day somewhere between 1934-1938. (Post coming soon. The more that participate the more fun it will be.) November, 1938 was a snowy month and Babu, ever so innocently, remarks how she was…

Writing Wednesdays: No Man’s Land

There is a sweet spot, a perfect place I like to be with my writing. There is also the wet cement place. The place of nothing but frustration and obligation. Where am I right now? Smack in the middle of the two. My paradise as a writer is new creation. Writing the outline. Talking…

transcribingmemory

The Big Day

The Great Hurricane of 1938

Two Wonderful Moments. Excerpts, September, 1938

Ghosts

Hindenburg on My Mind

What I gave Babu for Mother’s Day