Obscure memories…because I can

Writing again. Someone once asked if I just “had to write”? Nope, but I write because I can. I’ve discovered I remember my English grammar lessons, and I can spell. So it’s a no-brainer for me…I can write, so I do. But I am not driven to write. I’m driven to collect data, information, history…memories. The only way to preserve all of that is through writing. Of course, I could record it or video myself talking to myself or some unknown audience, but that doesn’t do it for me. I need to “write it down.” And I need to encourage other people to write it down, so it’s not lost. You wouldn’t want your family to lose the memories of a favorite loved one or forget they existed or how they contributed to the family history…so write it down! I want my family to know the great love I had for spending days with my great aunts and uncles. I want them to know how special my grandmother was….at least to me. I want them to know some of the favorite pastimes of these people and how life has changed since they were around or when they were younger. It was such a simpler time their childhood and mine. No electronics to rob our time…just time to do ….things! My grandmother (Nannie) loved a card game called Flinch. I don’t know if it even exists today, but she taught it to me to play with her. And, of course, I’ve long since forgotten how to play or even what the cards looked like except that worn blue stack that she kept handy. My Great Uncle Gene loved to play dominoes with me. He is the only one I ever remember playing with, he and his wife, my Aunt Della. I spent whole days with them. They were well into their 70s. Uncle Gene would walk to town in Rockport with me to pick up some groceries for lunch…whatever I wanted. Pork chops were usually my favorite, but maybe we had fishsticks a few times. He liked to introduce me to the shopkeepers that he knew…there were grocery stores along Main Street in the 1960s. I think he was pleased that this 12 or 14 year-old girl had come to spend the day with them and actually enjoyed it! When I was even younger, he would go out and play baseball with me! And take me in his old truck to visit his Lincolnville garden at his cousin’s place, Colb’ Wiley. I later learned that it was Colburn Wiley named after his mother ‘s family. Uncle Gene kept ducks or geese under the buildings at 18 Park Street (Camden), and a garden in the backyard, but there was a bigger garden in Lincolnville. Colb lived at the corner of the Moody Mountain Road and Route 235…called the Hope Road now? Obscure memories now, but it’s this type of detail that is lost when we don’t write it down or capture it for a future generation. Did you garden as a child? Did you work with an elderly relative or a favorite cousin? Did they have strange or old customs that aren’t observed now? Do you want your children to know those people and how they lived and what they contributed to your life, and perhaps may be the reason you do some of the things you do? It’s simple….write it down!