As I approach my 70th birthday, I realize even more how important it is to “write it down,” as my late mother always told me. I encourage many people I know to write down what they remember about their life. Journals or diaries make the best history books. And there may come a time when you or I don’t remember, and having this record could be very helpful. It’s easier than you might think.

Start with when and where you were born, and where you lived. Write about the first thing you remember.

For example, my earliest recollection is sitting in the dirt between potato rows in the garden. I must have been about three or four. My younger sister was in a wooden basket and my mother was digging potatoes in the garden, down back of my grandfather’s farm where we lived.

I remember the shed between the house and the barn, and that the shed always smelled like bread or grain because it was where my grandfather kept feed for his hound dogs. The barn smelled altogether different, like hay and cows. There was a huge golden-glow bush out back of the house where the sink drained outside. We had no electricity but running (cold) water via a pump in the black kitchen sink. It’s difficult to describe what that pump was like to anyone who has never used one!

I remember my father going to work in an old beat up truck and coming home tired. I remember weekends he was building a new house for us on the Chute Road, and I remember going with him sometimes, and being warned not to step on nails or to stand under the ladder. Years later, I learned that each week when he got paid he would go to L.C. Andrew and buy lumber and building materials, as he could afford it, load it in the truck and work on the house. He never had a mortgage – didn’t believe in borrowing money.

After we moved to the new house, I remember my mother teaching me to read, at the old kitchen table. Sounding out the words in a story about Dick and Jane and being very patient as I impatiently learned. I started school, knowing how to read, at the old John A. Andrew school (still in use today as an alternative school). We went to school all day, via the school bus driven by an uncle. The roads were all dirt in those days and usually very bumpy. Kids on the bus loved that!

Then came the day when another baby was born and my grandfather came to the house with the buggy and team of horses and took my sister and me over to his farm while this event took place. When we returned, we had a new little sister, thanks to the local doctor (Sidney Branson) who did indeed make house calls.

You see how easy it is to write – you just need to get started. Remember, some things (like the pump I mentioned above) need to be explained and perhaps it would be a good idea to get some drawings or photos to go along with the writing.

Here we are in the midst of graduation time. You might want to jot down what your own graduation was like. For me and many females in my generation, it was the first pair of high-heeled shoes, first pair of nylon stockings, first time to wear make-up (but only lipstick) and “first” for a lot of things. The standard gift at the time was a wristwatch. What do kids get today when they graduate from high school?

Just the other day I told one of my friends to start writing it down. She had been telling me about her mother and the scrapbooks she had kept and other hobbies she had. My friend said writing was “too hard.” Believe me, it isn’t. If you’ve ever written a letter to a relative or friend, writing about your life is just an extension of that.

So, to all of you who are my age, younger or older, if you haven’t sharpened your pencil yet, this is a good time to do it – and let me know how you make out!

As I approach my 70th birthday, I realize even more how important it is to “write it down,” as my late mother always told me. I encourage many people I know to write down what they remember about their life. Journals or diaries make the best history books. And there may come a time when you or I don’t remember, and having this record could be very helpful. It’s easier than you might think.

Start with when and where you were born, and where you lived. Write about the first thing you remember.

For example, my earliest recollection is sitting in the dirt between potato rows in the garden. I must have been about three or four. My younger sister was in a wooden basket and my mother was digging potatoes in the garden, down back of my grandfather’s farm where we lived.

I remember the shed between the house and the barn, and that the shed always smelled like bread or grain because it was where my grandfather kept feed for his hound dogs. The barn smelled altogether different, like hay and cows. There was a huge golden-glow bush out back of the house where the sink drained outside. We had no electricity but running (cold) water via a pump in the black kitchen sink. It’s difficult to describe what that pump was like to anyone who has never used one!

I remember my father going to work in an old beat up truck and coming home tired. I remember weekends he was building a new house for us on the Chute Road, and I remember going with him sometimes, and being warned not to step on nails or to stand under the ladder. Years later, I learned that each week when he got paid he would go to L.C. Andrew and buy lumber and building materials, as he could afford it, load it in the truck and work on the house. He never had a mortgage – didn’t believe in borrowing money.

After we moved to the new house, I remember my mother teaching me to read, at the old kitchen table. Sounding out the words in a story about Dick and Jane and being very patient as I impatiently learned. I started school, knowing how to read, at the old John A. Andrew school (still in use today as an alternative school). We went to school all day, via the school bus driven by an uncle. The roads were all dirt in those days and usually very bumpy. Kids on the bus loved that!

Then came the day when another baby was born and my grandfather came to the house with the buggy and team of horses and took my sister and me over to his farm while this event took place. When we returned, we had a new little sister, thanks to the local doctor (Sidney Branson) who did indeed make house calls.

You see how easy it is to write – you just need to get started. Remember, some things (like the pump I mentioned above) need to be explained and perhaps it would be a good idea to get some drawings or photos to go along with the writing.

Here we are in the midst of graduation time. You might want to jot down what your own graduation was like. For me and many females in my generation, it was the first pair of high-heeled shoes, first pair of nylon stockings, first time to wear make-up (but only lipstick) and “first” for a lot of things. The standard gift at the time was a wristwatch. What do kids get today when they graduate from high school?

Just the other day I told one of my friends to start writing it down. She had been telling me about her mother and the scrapbooks she had kept and other hobbies she had. My friend said writing was “too hard.” Believe me, it isn’t. If you’ve ever written a letter to a relative or friend, writing about your life is just an extension of that.

So, to all of you who are my age, younger or older, if you haven’t sharpened your pencil yet, this is a good time to do it – and let me know how you make out!