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?