I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?This (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.
TROPHY
My sister was a pageant queen and
collected LOTS of trophies. I wasn't, and didn't, although a few did
come into my life. I received a few for school performance, and once,
when I joined my sister for a pageant, I brought home a runner-up
trophy along with a tiara. I don't really remember getting the
trophy, but I do remember the pageant. We were required to compete in
3 different sections, so my mom created 3 different outfits for me.
One was a royal blue pant suit. Another was a lavender church dress to wear while I
played a piece on the piano (Homecoming by Hagood Hardy, which I got
caught in the middle of, and couldn't find my way out for a minute! I
don't think the audience noticed, but I sure did!). And of course
there was a pageant dress. Mine was a soft pink with a hoop skirt –
more like an antebellum costume than a glitzy pageant dress. But then
I've always been a bit more homespun than glitz...
Oh, I would have loved the "idea" of the pageant and the gown, but I would have been a nervous wreck doing piano. Maybe a dance back then. However, I am more of a backstage person. I just get so nervous. I love your last line. I love that whoever we are and whatever we enjoy it is ok to be us. I missed getting a copy of your A-Z book. I didn't realize you were going to sign those. I was there for your Build Your Stack talk with Charles. It was like a TV show!! You were very good. Did not see all of it. Anyhow I have it on my list and I love it from the ones I have had the chance to look at. What a wonderful collaboration you have going with Charles. I Hope your day is wonderful and that I, too, can create work from this book. I bought a copy but have not written of late much at all. Too much running and grandkids do not understand the writer's life constraints. Ah, no. But in time.....hugs to you, Irene. I wish I could have seen more of you in Baltimore. Janet F.
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