Writing The Arrangement and The Begonia Bribe
Now, on to writing The Arrangement
In the weeks to come, I will talk about my posts for The A-Z Challenge that I titled The Waiting Summer. Trying to come up with 26 memories for one summer was, well, challenging, but the A-Z was about challenge, after all.
I chose the summer of my seventeenth year because I held down
my first real job and it was a time of transition. Sometimes I felt like I was waiting
forever on people and life to happen and other times my waiting was in the blink
of an eye.
Someone had asked me how I remembered the details or even
the memories themselves, when they couldn’t. I think I have a terrible memory,
but only for short term stuff and names. And, it may help that I am a detail
person. However, I think everyone can summon memories if you try.
I stimulated my memory
“squirrels” by
- Looking at lots of photos.
- Thinking about my friends.
- Asking my mom things.
- Asking my sister things.
- And just old fashioned brainstorming.
I actually
drew a circle on a piece of paper wrote the summer of 1973 and drew lines out
from that labeling them with the people I knew or met and events as I remembered happened. I thought about the makeup and clothes I wore and my troublesome hair.
The Arrangement
was the easiest to write. I wanted to work a real job for the summer. I wanted
to work in a town twenty miles away waiting tables. Both my parents worked so I knew my dad believed
in working, but would he let me drive so far every time I needed to go to work? I don’t’
remember how long I pondered telling him my plan, but I remember the evening I
did it. I remember how I felt. I also knew what our family dinners looked like
at the time.
Things that stand out
for me regarding that story:
- We ate meals together. I took that tradition
with me to my family.
Things I didn’t tell
you:
- How it seemed like it took forever for my dad to get home from work that day.
- At that time in my life, I felt restless and head strong.
- I felt like I knew best and all adults knew nothing.
- I realized after I wrote The Arrangement that the coupon selling job was during my senior year not the summer before as I thought. No biggy.
- It was at times emotional for me. We’ll talk about that later.
From the Comments:
- I enjoyed that I reminded you of days past – your first job, maybe your family. That’s what chronicling your life is about.
- My one summer babysitting job consisted of the lady dropping off her daughter, who was my sister’s best friend, me sleeping in, my sister playing with the little girl all day while I collected two bucks for my work, plus all the Merle Norman makeup I wanted. It was a win win situation. Right? And no I didn’t share my earnings with my sister.
Can you remember details
about a particular summer of your youth? Are you sharing stories with your
children of your childhood? Are you listening when your parents tell about
theirs? What was your first job?
Comments
And your arrangement was fabulous, but YES, a huge organizational undertaking, I think! Definitely seemed worth it, though. Nice to have a cohesive collection at the end of it.
Someimes family has to jar my memory too then it all comes flooding back.