A Loose Table of Contents
or What Shall I Save of my Mental Archive?
by Susan Holland, gathering stories to submit to The Story Hall
When I set my mind to remembering, a “table of contents” moves through my mind like the credits on a movie screen. I find my afternoon nap interrupted by small events in my past that pop up and ask to be commemorated in some way, and I have to tell my busy brain to settle down and park these ideas in a safe place until later. I MUST trap them into a collection of some sort.
Making a list of them might become burdensome and chase away the muse, but here is a loose list, or a preview of coming attractions! (?)
Coming to mind right now is the story of Button’s Murphy. No, that is not a typo; it is the name written down on a slip of paper by Button’s Murphy himself who rescued my brother and me when we got stranded in the train station at Ocean City NJ as children.That is a good one to save.
I have two favorite aunts who come benevolently into and out of my history — periodically, like a sort of holiday — the one I named Nini and the one I at first called Mañana. I have stories about these women that are interesting and worth sharing. (* I already wrote about Nini.)
There was a train trip from Stamford to Philadelphia as a young child that was traumatic and is funny to look back on. A tragicomedy with tears and things.
There are the stories of playing hooky from school, recollections of hiding in tall trees and feeling very powerful watching unknowing people pass by, and of my younger brother’s secret fort in the tangle-wangles that he let me know about, and the secret cost of admission.
And, as well, the last conversation I had with him not many years ago.( *I already published that story too.)
The trauma of the “six-tables” and telling time, and the stolen daffodils and other challenges of elementary school.
Mlle. Gisele Marie Henriette G____ and learning to curtsy. (* Already shared in The Story Hall.)
The way my father taught me to drive.
The way my mother protested.
The way they both loved me so.
Well, those are a few. I’ll drag them out of the notes and out of the gray matter and enjoy putting them into shareable format. Thank you, The Story Hall, for a place to file my memories.
Susan Holland
Revised from a blog originally published by Susan G Holland on southjerseykitchengarden.blogspot.com© 2007
