That’s me and the class at Renaissance Court in the Chicago Cultural Center. Photo courtesy Audrey Mitchell.
A loyal blog reader commented to last week’s post suggesting I publish excerpts from student essays. I love it when you blog readers leave comments to my posts, and I want you to know: I take your suggestions seriously! So here goes with excerpts from last week’s memoir-writing class, when I asked each student to pick a coin, check the date, then write a short essay about something that happened to them that year.
Andrea opened her essay with a confession.
I chose my coin at the end of class, which allowed me the opportunity to cheat on this assignment. The first coin I pulled read “1994”. The year of Dave’s cancer and death. I didn’t want to spend time there. I put that coin back. My second coin-“2004”. That year I closed Kids & Clay and had eye surgery. Too heavy for summer writing. Back in the baggie.
Beverly had an easier time. She chose 1958, the year her daughter was born.
I do remember long conversations in the mornings and the evenings over the merits of the names we were considering. Marsh had pretty much settled on Arabella for a girl and was undecided for a boy.
Arabella Bishop was a character in the movie Captain Blood starring Olivia D’Haviland and Errol Flynn. She was the beautiful niece of the governor of the island where Dr. Peter Blood was being held as a slave. He kidnapped her and fled to freedom.
Beverly wrote that she preferred the name Ramona. Or Sabrina, from the movie of the same name. “Our beautiful daughter was born on January 18, 1958, and she was promptly named Arabella Berkenbilt,” she said, a chuckle forming in her voice. “So much for Ramona and Sabrina!”
Sheila did some research before penning her essay about 1996.
To spur my memory, I Googled the year. Up popped DA BULLS! They’d won their second consecutive championship title. Continuing up to page 52 on Google, nothing but the Bulls championship was noted. Certainly more had occurred on this earth.
Rather than write about Michael Jordan, Sheila described a temp job she had taken that year. “Typists were not allowed to converse,” she wrote. “Only sneezes and the click-clack of typewriters broke the silence.”
One of my students was born in Italy, lived there during WWII, then immigrated to Chicago in her early 20s. She agreed to let me excerpt her essay here as long as I used her nom de plume: Monica Salina. “Monica is the name of my paternal grandfather’s orchard of my childhood,” she explained in an email message. “And Salina is a small enchanted island in Italy, the island where the movie ‘Il POSTINO’ was filmed.” Monica Salina’s essay describes a 24-hour period in 1977 when she took care of her three sons and their cousins during a visit to Italy.
The evening turns out to be fun: kids playing games speaking two different languages with a dictionary as referee. I wake up the next morning sweltering and uncomfortable. “The sun must be high in the sky”, is my first thought. “I hope I’m not late”! Only… it’s not morning yet. And it’s not the sun. It’s a fire in the near- by hills. The trees crackle under the flames. People outside look. Point. Talk all together. We are far enough away to feel safe.
As for Andrea, she eventually did find a coin she liked. 1984 was the year she and her husband rented a place in Ypsilanti.
An Ann Arbor attorney owned the old farmhouse we rented. His secretary told us we could paint if we wanted to. Just give their account number at the Sherwin Williams store.
Did I hear her right? She had just given me a gift! A project. A reason to get up in the morning.
My eye condition HAD FORCED ME TO quit teaching in 1982. My job had been my life. Two years with no identity. Two years in limbo. Two years of hours to fill. But this young woman just casually mentioned a project that actually excited me! I loved to paint. And this house needed me!
Andrea’s eye condition is quite rare; it developed when she was a young adult. She gets around fine without a cane or a guide dog, but it’s difficult for her to read standard print. In class, When it’s Andrea’s turn to read, she makes her way to Wanda and hands her essay over. Wanda reads Andrea’s essays out loud to the class, and I always marvel at how well she can sight-read Andrea’s work. Of course it helps that the essays are so well-written, that makes them easier to read!
What a privilege to hear these writers tell their stories to me – and the class – every week. Thank you, blog readers, for asking me to share some excerpts with you. It is truly my pleasure.
Beth, thanks for sharing my writing. I truly suffered in silence with that horrendous typing job!
I loved reading these excerpts from the ladies in your class. It left me wanting more. I think you should gather them all together in a book and instead of “Tuesdays with Morrie” it could be “Mondays with Beth”.
great idea about Wednesdays with Beth. Thanks for update too.
Yes- you have “hooked” my interest! These ladies have wonderful stories to tell and they do it so well!
Yes, and don’t forget we have one man in class, too — also a very good writer and storyteller!
Hi Beth,
Loved the essay excerpts. They were that much more fun to read because I know some of the authors. I’ve been creating new memories by helping to babysit my twin grandnieces, Ella Grace and Savanna Dawn. The girls are preemies, but doing well at almost 3 months. Say hello to everyone in class, and thanks for keeping me updated.
Love,
Mary
Ella and Savanna are lucky girls, you are undoubtedly a GREAT Aunt Mary. We miss you in class, I’ll send your greetings to them all this Wednesday.
Thanks, Beth, for conveying my greetings to your writing class. I would like to return eventually, but it’s not in the stars right now. I’ll keep in touch.
Love,
Mary
Great essays. Thanks for sharing. Great idea too.
I have to thank my sister Marilee for the idea — she is a teacher (well, now she is an administrator) at a high school and at a teacher workshop they tried this coin idea, each teacher chose a coin and wrote a paragraph or two to share about that year. Marilee visited my senior writing class a few weeks ago and thought they might like to give the coins a try. As it so often goes with my very smart sister Marilee, she was right!
I loved reading this — amazing way to start writing and sharing. Recently I asked my group to write a compassionate letter to themselves. The letters are amazing and so encouraging. Love the amazing gift of writing and what it can do for people.
ha – just read my comment. Perhaps I can find some other ways to describe than AMAZING! Truly is, however.
Amazing how amazingly well that amazing word works in this amazing circumstance!
Beth, this is a great blog. I can hardly wait to submit some of my writings. If its ok with the class, I’d like to take some more photos showing our lovely faces and of course share them with the group.
Audrey
I hope the class agrees to have more photos taken, if so I’d love to share your photos with my blog readers here, too. Let’s ask them this Wednesday…
Beth,
This was a creative idea to generate memoirs from your students. I’ts a form I am interested in myself, so it’s helpful to see how a variety of people approached it.
The stories were so varied and interesting. I hope some of them decide to continue writing their stories outside of class. They have a lot to say.
Oh, Lolly, I hope *you* get started writing your stories down soon, too — in previous comments here you’ve asked me how you might get started blogging. Now I’m thinking perhaps memoir-writing would be a better venture for you. You, too, have a lot to say, and a lot of people would benefitt from reading your story.
So now what’s the assignment for this weekk?
This Wednesday, in honor of the ex-governor here in Illinois, the topic is..”Guilty.” Can’t wait to hear what the students come up with.
Let your students know I loved reading the excerpts and hearing details of their lives. Maybe they should combine efforts and publish on the web? I hope they are sharing with their families.
I have my own now-deceased grandmother’s memoirs (handwritten) sitting in my office, but I have not been able to read them since my mom died about 8 years ago ,unexpectedly, because I knew I would want to discuss them with her. Now I will take the time to get back to them.
Gretchen
Love the excerpts! Keep ’em coming.
Gretchen, I can totally understand your reluctance to read those memoirs, I kno that you & your mother were very close and would have enjoyed discussing what all your grandmother had written. What a devastating loss it was to have your mother die so unexpectedly. The students in my memoir class would be touched to think they had any part in inspiring you to at least take a teeny-tiny look at your grandmother’s memoirs, I’ll share the comment you left here with them in class Wednesday, thanks for taking the time to write.
Glad you finally weighed in here, Stu — I have *you* to thank for giving me the idea of publishing some excerpts. All the positive comments to this post makes it pretty obvious: your idea was a very good one. We’ll see what my students say in class tomorrow, if others are willing to let me post their work, maybe I’ll continue sharing excerpts here on the blog from time to time.
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