October Memory Prompts

October Memories
Fall is here and do you remember what you enjoyed doing at this time of year? Fall has one of those in-between weather, not too hot and not too cold.

An expert carver works on a pumpkin sculpture at a fall festival.

Let’s write about our first daylight saving times and how it affected your family’s life. World Series baseball coming up and football season is taking over. High school and college football memories need to be recorded. Not just the players but the homecoming, bonfire rallies, letter jackets and the audience in the bleachers.

Witches and ghosts are showing up in my neighborhood already. Do you remember Halloween fun, tricks, and costumes back in the days when you were trick or treat age? Have you ever been tricked? Or had your decorations stolen?

A rustic scarecrow made of burlap bags.

Columbus Day comes on the 8th this year. Have you ever done something special to celebrate this holiday? What was the largest event you ever attended or your parents attended.

Christopher Columbus statue in Savannah, Georgia

Do you remember “the Big Band” era? Who was your favorite? Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey, and Woody Herman were a few. What was your favorite movie as a child? The girls will probably say, Shirley Temple. My kids and I remember Bing Crosby and Bob Hope plus all the westerns. Have you met a famous person?

Gail

(this is part of a series of writing prompts that Gail Lee Martin created for the Our Echo website)

 

September Memory Prompts

These are ideas that Gail Lee Martin shared on the Our Echo website back in 2007. She hoped they would inspire people to write about their childhood days.

September Memories
I recently read about a restored World War II P-38 named Glacier Girl being featured at the Oshkosh Air Show in Wisconsin in July and this jogged my memory of using food stamps and gathering scrap metal during WWII. We did without a lot of things because they were rationed, such as car tires, gasoline, sugar even meat. What are your memories of things during WWII?

Scrap metal and rubber collected during WWII for the war effort.

I also remember when we moved to town and had to buy oleo. It looked like lard until you put this small yellow pill into the oleo and blended it all together. Still didn’t taste like butter. Have I jogged your memories yet?

What kind of magazines do you remember your parents & grandparents having around the house? Maybe Good Housekeeping, Red Book, Country Gentleman, or an Almanac. Did you ever order anything from the ads in the magazines or order from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalogs? Or other types of catalogs.

Then did we start having home parties like Tupperware, Avon, to sell things to our friends? Those were fun and they still are except so many women have jobs outside the home that you can find only a few that have the time come.

I see they have brought the Bobble Head dolls back. Every young person old enough to drive had some kind of those bobbleheads on the dashboard of their cars, mostly dogs and other animals. This was just before WWII.

I remember when Farm Auctions were a place to go to see your friends and find something you just couldn’t do without. Of course, they were no fun if it was your family that was selling out. Did you ever go to auctions with your Dad or Granddad?

Romantic ruffles are back again. My mother put ruffles on my dresses and blouses in the 1930s and again for my five girls in the late forties and early fifties. She even put them on her aprons.

Ginger Martin in a ruffled dress – 1950s. Probably made by her grandmother, Ruth McGhee.

School started in our area this past week and school days should jog your memories of how you dressed, or carried lunch or ate at school. My kids each had a different lunch box decorated with their choice of popular characters on the sides. Did you? Let’s see how many different school memories we can come up with.

Spider-Man Retro Web Swing Metal Lunch Box

by marvelclassics

 

August Memory Joggers

August Memories
It is county fair time in my part of the world and soon the State Fair in Hutchinson will be entertaining crowds of people of all shapes and sizes. Do you have memories of going to or of entering something in your local county or state fair? If you entered did you save your red, white blue or purple ribbons? What did you enjoy most at the fair? This year Pepsi cans in our area have the Kansas State Fair advertised on the side.

Sheep judging at the county fair in Acton, Maine

The purple ribbon winner!

Did you ever go to carnivals, the zoo, rodeos, or the circus? Were you ever in a parade or enjoy watching them?

As a kid did you play baseball or softball or go roller skating?

How did you earn money to spend while at the fair? Did you get an allowance from your parents or did you do odd jobs in the neighborhood? Maybe some of you might remember having a lemonade stand or having a paper route.

Did you walk or ride a bike? When did you get your first bike?

Grandpa Clyde helping his granddaughter learn to ride a bike.

Did you ever have a nickname? I was called Fibber or just plain McGhee all because of my last name and the radio show Fibber McGhee & Molly.

Did you or your parents like to do crossword or jigsaw puzzles? What do you remember your grandparents doing in their spare time?

July Memory Joggers

Memory joggers for the month of July created by Gail Lee Martin. She would love it if you would take pen in hand and write about some of these topics.

July 1 – July 31 – July Memories

With our Nation’s birthday coming up on the fourth, let’s try and recall how we celebrated the 4th of July as far back as we can. We used to go swimming and have a picnic. I can even remember when we had no fireworks, can you? What were your favorite fireworks? Our children loved smoke bombs and sparklers. If you recall picnics tell us your menu and how you kept the food safe. Who attended? How about some pet stories and the noise of the fireworks?

A photo of a 4th of July sparkler (by Gail’s daughter, Virginia Allain)

Hallmark channel on TV is planning a month of “Rough N Ready” shows for July. How about writing some Rough N Ready stories or memories of your favorite Western movies? Our favorites were movies with Tom Mix, Dale & Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hop-a-Long Cassidy in them.

 

Classic western hero – The Lone Ranger

Where did you go to see the movies? Who did you go with and what did it cost to get in? Who could forget the smell of the popcorn? Describe the theater inside and out. Do you remember the first drive-in-movies? Did your theater have drawings or gifts?

I found an old Log Cabin Syrup tin that looked like the ones I played with as a kid. Do you remember what syrup you liked on pancakes as a kid? Did your mother make them from scratch or use a mix? Tell us some breakfast stories.

Photo of Log Cabin Syrup tin from Nutmeg Cottage on Etsy

Pancakes with butter and syrup (photo courtesy of Pixabay)

What would you do if you had as much rain as Kansas, Oklahoma & Texas has had lately? Maybe you’ve gone through that sort of thing already. Tell us about your rainy ordeals.

Karen Kolavalli’s photo of the lightning and rain clouds at the Bronco Ball Park in El Dorado, Kansas.

June Memory Joggers

Getting people to write about their childhood and various times in their lives was a passion for Gail Lee Martin. When she worked with the Our Echo website, she wrote memory prompts in 2007 for each month of the year.

June 1 – June 30 – June Memories

June has more weddings than another month. Does your wedding anniversary bring back memories that should be written about? Write about all the little things that made your wedding special. Who was there or did you elope? Who made your cake? Surely you have lots of pictures to choose from.

Gail’s granddaughter, Diana made dozens of paper flowers for her wedding tables. They looked terrific in Gail’s vintage canning jars.

How do you spend the extra hours you have in the summer because of the daylight saving time. Can you remember when we didn’t have daylight saving time and just worked from dawn to dark?

Did your family take long vacation trips? Ever travel on Highway 66 and stay in motels when they were separate little cabins? Remember the Burma Shave signs? I have more postcards from my family’s trips than pictures. 

Kansas Mushroom State Park Kanopolis POST CARD
by Brozeks

 

More May Memory Joggers

Earlier this month, I posted Gail Lee Martin’s tips for early May memories. Hopefully, you were inspired to write a few and are now ready for some more memory prompts. Get out your pen and start writing! May 15 – May 30.

Graphic from Pixabay

“In the merry month of May, there are many things to do that will jog your memory. Such as gathering edible mushrooms and green plants that spring rains have made plentiful. Do you remember your mother or grandmother going out to do this? Even here in town, I can find some of nature’s bounty to make our meals colorful and different by picking Inky Cap Mushrooms to add to soups, scrambled eggs, and even gravy. I also pick Poke, Goose Weed, and Lamb’s Quarter and cook them like spinach.

May is also Older Americans Month. This would be a good time to visit your older family members and neighbors and get them talking about what they did years ago.

Graduation time is upon us but those dreaded finals always came first. Write about your senior year as if it was a letter to your great-grandchildren. Add what was going on around the world during your final year in high school or college. Were you a class officer, in a class play, lettered in sports or music? Tell about your school’s colors and mascot. As always, add pictures if you can. Also, tell what you know about your parents or grandparents education.

Memorial Day finishes up this month. Do you look forward to it because the holiday signals time to play outdoors or for the time to remember your family and friends that are no longer with you – or both? – Gail” 

These were originally posted on the Our Echo website by Gail back in 2007.

Gail Lee Martin with her granddaughter, Samantha on her graduation day.

May Memory Joggers

Gail Lee Martin actively encouraged others to record their early memories. She taught classes at the Shepherd’s Center in Wichita and sessions at the Kansas Author’s Club annual convention. Here are her tips for early May memories. Get out your pen and start writing!

 

Photo from Pixabay

 

May 1 – May 15, 2007 – May Memories
Memory jogs for May are abundant. The first that comes to mind is May Baskets. My husband and I received two yesterday. What a great warm feeling. One was from new neighbors that just moved in. The other was from a group of church youths. Do you remember making them and surprising neighbors? Have you ever received May baskets? How did you feel?

• Were you ever involved in wrapping a May Pole for your school or did your town celebrate May Day?
• Spring songbirds are arriving in my area. What are your favorites? Are you a bird watcher? It is interesting to watch the funny antics of the robins strutting in our street.
• Mother’s Day is coming. What memories does that bring you or your parents? How do you celebrate that day? Do you give gifts of flowers, candy, clothes, or jewels?
• It is school prom time and a great bunch of memories surrounds that special time. Do you remember planning & preparation for the prom night when you were a junior and the total enjoyment when you were a senior? Add pictures if you can find them.

These tips were previously posted on the Our Echo website.