Sometimes, when beginning a new year, I like to look back at the old one. So, yesterday, I not only looked back at 2014, I went way, way back to 1953 and a 5-year diary my mother gave me in 1952. It was full of a young girl’s thoughts and experiences. Some of them were so scribbled and smudged, they were hard to read. On January 1, 1953, I wrote, “Well, Dear Diary, what a day at school. Miss Virginia (the teacher at Valley Center in Blackwell) gave us girls a raking over the coals just because of that____”(name omitted to protect the innocent.) I don’t know what the aforementioned youngster had done; probably, she had tattled and that was a big No-No for me.
Then, the years went on. After moving to Cherokee County, a trip to town was a major thing and a visit to the library and checking out some books was enough to keep me happy for a long time, although I was scared to death of the stern librarian.
In 1957, I wrote about seeing Elvis for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show. Oh, my! I was walking on clouds.
And then, later, I read a story I had written to one of my friends and she liked it! So, I guess I got started writing pretty young. What the story was about, I have no idea.
Anyway, reminiscing is nice in a way, melancholy in another, but important so I can see where my feet have taken me and in which direction they are now pointing. Experience should be a teacher and a valuable guide, whether the experience is good or bad. Looking back is good just as long as it doesn’t keep us from stumbling over the here and now. That would be not so good.
Feeling nostalgic, I found some interesting items in an old 1921 Etude Music Magazine which I’ll share with you tomorrow. Then, on Sunday, I’m privileged to present an interview with a writer friend, Janet Brown, who is another Pen-L author.
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