[Stylist] A new prompt
Jackie
jackieleepoet at cox.net
Tue Oct 22 04:31:26 UTC 2019
Vegas,
how exciting that you knew three of your four grandparents.
I remember learning to dance with my feet on my father's feet. I believe we had a record player and those old 39 records. My sister played the piano as well as my father, but I don't think we had tape recorders until later.
As for memories, oh, there are so many. During the depression, we moved to Nachusa, Illinois to live with my Grandpa on his one acre farm. I was maybe five or six, my sister two years older, and we picked corn all day, along with huge tomatoes, and grapes. My grandpa would give us some pennies, or a nickel, we would walk half a mile to a little store, buy candy, and play in the silo filled with grain, "out of bounds, on the way home. It was beside the railway.
There was a cold cellar which held vegetables, Grandpa's apple cider, and other goodies. At age 75 he was told he had lost the circulation in one leg and needed amputation. He told the doctor where to go, went home and invented a see-saw bed which was a padded door mounted on a wood mounted sewing machine motor which he slept on for ten years and see-sawed every night, and worked in the garden during the days. I also remember the out-house with the Sears catalogue, and the corn cobs!
I'd better stop.
Jacqueline Williams
Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.
Jenny Xie
-----Original Message-----
From: Stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vejas Vasiliauskas via Stylist
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 3:55 PM
To: Writers' Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Vejas Vasiliauskas <alpineimagination at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Stylist] A new prompt
>
> Hi Jackie,
> That's such a great memory.
> Just as you enjoy reading from younger writers, I enjoy learning about growing up during my grandparents' generations. I had one born in the 1910's, one born in the 1920s, and two born in the 1930s. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet all of them except for one of the two born during the 1930s.
> While we're on the subject, would you mind answering another question about growing up during this time? When you were a child, did you find it easy to access very basic recording equipment? I ask because I'm thinking that in one of my stories, I'm going to have a young boy visit his great-grandfather, and was thinking that maybe he could listen to a very old recording of the great-grandfather as a child.
Thanks,
Vejas
>
>
> On 21 Oct 2019, at 12:58, Jackie via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Vegas,
> That is an interesting comment.
> I was born in 1928, and I was sixteen. So it would have been in 1944, I think. I don't think the teachers made home visits just for grades, or as a usual thing, but in my case, I guess Mr. Thompson thought it was necessary to a recruitment.
> Though I am in my nineties now, I even remember that my mother showed him the crabapple trees and gave him some crabapple jelly.
> I do learn a lot from reading what all of you "young ones" write. I think that includes everyone on the list!
> Thanks for reading and commenting.
> Jacqueline Williams
>
> Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.
> Jenny Xie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vejas
> Vasiliauskas via Stylist
> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 12:38 PM
> To: Writers' Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Vejas Vasiliauskas <alpineimagination at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Stylist] A new prompt
>
>
> Hi Jackie,
> I really enjoyed reading about your teacher and how inspirational he was.
> On another note: I found it very interesting that teachers still made home visits. I know that I'm considerably younger than you, but I thought that home visits were more of an 1800s and early 1900s phenomenon.
> Vejas
>
>
> On 20 Oct 2019, at 15:56, Jackie via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Thanks to Annie. It is slightly different from her prompt. My goal
> was to keep it to one page, and to possibly send it to The Reader's
> Digest who has this feature regularly.
> Anyone want to join me? The Teacher Who Changed my Life Jacqueline
> Williams, Oct., 2019 The Teacher Who Changed My Life I was sixteen
> years old, a junior in Riverside Brookfield High School in Hollywood,
> Illinois. In spite of being active in athletics, and an excellent
> student, I was extremely shy, lacking in self-confidence and an introvert.
> When I was enrolled in Social Science class, my teacher, Mr. Thompson,
> asked the class to write their own philosophy of life. I loved the
> assignment, as I read a lot, had many ideas, and I challenged many
> traditional ideas, particularly about religion.
> He asked me to read my paper to the class. I remember telling him
> that I would rather not do so. I was petrified. He was a sensitive
> man, reassured me he would ask some others to read first. When it was
> my turn, I got up in front of the class, and was shaking so badly,
> that the paper in my hand shook and I could hardly read it.
> Regardless, he praised me and started a discussion of some of the ideas.
> In about a week, he asked if he could contact my parents for a home
> visit, and said it was about the debate club, which he sponsored. I
> did not object, though I knew nothing about debating, or what it entailed.
> Mr. Thompson did come to my house and while I did not hear the entire
> conversation, the gist of it was that he thought I would be a real
> asset to the school and to the debate team. He felt that with my
> parents support, my personal confidence and development would grow if
> I would join the club. He also asked me about my plans beyond high
> school. This girl, with her thick glasses, felt like a real person.
> I vividly remember those next months. We were assigned topics, had to
> research both sides of those topics, practice debating our fellow
> members on the side we believed in, but finally we had to debate again
> any side assigned us by Mr. Thompson. Then we went out on the trail.
> My confidence grew with each debate. I remember when we debated at the
> University of Chicago, and our team received accolades and a trophy.
> Mr. Thompson gave me special recognition back at the school.
> How did this change my life? Primarily, it taught me to think, and to
> realize that there are always two sides, possibly more, to every question.
> It trained me in having confidence to speak out, think quickly in
> terms of rebuttal, and to speak with respect to others' opinions.
> My family was transferred to New York when I was in college, and I
> never return to my old school for any reunions. I was in my late
> seventies when a boyfriend took me to Illinois, and specifically to
> Hollywood, for a visit. I was able to walk the halls of Riverside
> Brookfield High. On the wall was a big beautifully framed portrait of
> Mr. Thompson. I learned he was the tennis coach with a winning record.
> This surprised me because he had a foot turned in a strange way which
> caused him to walk with a severe limp. I wondered if this is why he believed that anyone could surmount problems, and
> he had devoted his life to helping others as he did for me.
>
> Jacqueline Williams
>
> Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.
> Jenny Xie
>
>
>
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