WRITING PROMPT: Write the words.....

WRITING PROMPT: Write the words "I remember..." at the top of a blank page then, without hesitation, write the next words that come to you. Be specific. Write some of the details of what you want to write about, not just the idea of it. As soon as you've completed a few sentences of the image, and before you stop to think of the next, drop down a few lines and begin again with the words "I remember..." and write the next snapshot that comes. Do it again and again until you've filled a page. Each of these "I remembers" becomes a door into a writing session.


I REMEMBER:
The day I got stung by a bee while I was riding my tricycle. I was all by myself in the middle of the trailer court holding my left hand flat. On top of it was a paper towel and on top of the paper towel was a white powdered sugar doughnut. The bee came after the doughnut, got stuck under the paper towel and stung me. I dropped my doughnut onto the ground and started crying. My memory is that I was crying more for the loss of my doughnut than I was for the pain of the bee sting.

I REMEMBER:
The day I accidently shot a little sparrow with the BB gun that I was NOT supposed to be playing with. A friend of mine, Scottie Poe, let me borrow the gun for the day. I stood out in my back yard and aimed at the little bird and pulled the trigger. The next thing I knew the little bird was flopping all over the yard screaming out in pain and I did not know what to do. I buried him alive in a little hole that I dug in haste and worry. I will never forget the sorrow I felt for the bird.

I REMEMBER:
Watching the moonflowers bloom each night with my neighbor Dempsey. I always felt special because my mom would call in my sisters at dusk but she would let me go across the yard into the neighbors' yard where the old man would be sitting on his back steps waiting for me. Together we would walk to his little garden to watch the yellow flowers bloom underneath the street light in the alley. The bushes would shake with life and it was fun to guess which flower would bloom next.

I REMEMBER:
The anxiety of driving out to grandma K's house for our big Christmas party! I knew that Santa would eventually be there. I knew there would be stockings full of gifts and our yearly ornament from grandma. I knew that after stockings we would be visited by santa claus so we all had to run to each window and the sliding glass door to listen for the jingle bells that announced his arrival. I knew we'd all take turns sitting on his lap so we could tell him what we wanted for Christmas. I knew he would give each of us a brown paper lunch bag that had been folded down neatly and stapled shut. Inside there would be an apple or an orange, some peanuts, and a little bit of candy. I knew that on the way home dad had to drive careful because there might be reindeer walking around on the road out.

I REMEMBER:
Waking up at four or five in the morning so Kara and I could be on time to meet the swim team bus. It would be very dark but we would be wide awake and feeling grown up and responsible. We would make sure we had the lunch that we'd packed the day before usually with special snacks that we had walked to the grocery store to shop for on our own. We bought special granola bars, special juice drinks, we bought packages of sweetened kool-aid so we could lick our fingers and use them to dunk inside the blue or green sugar and then suck them dry. We bought strawberry and grape flavored hubba-bubba bubblegum. We packed our lunches, our swimming suits, our towels, our extra spending money and we walked through the cool darkness towards the pool and the park. We could here the noisy rumble of the bus waiting for us the minute we walked out our door, as the pool was only two blocks away. We walked, hand in hand, feeling so responsible.

I REMEMBER:
Seeing my dad cry for the first time in my life the day I left for the first time. He clenched his teeth hard trying to will the tears NOT to come. But they came. I hugged him and I know he didn't want to let go. He told be to be careful. He told me to call them when I got there. He told me to keep in touch. He told me he loved me. And then he did let me go. But only after he told me to call them when I got there one more time.