Memoirs class – McKenna Center

This past week I was invited to do a workshop on memoirs at the McKenna Senior Center.  Although the original workshop was focused on WRITING memoirs, this one took a different turn.  We talked about the importance of sharing your story, your memories, and your life with your family, friends, and community.  And it is important.  As far back as records go, our history is based on word of mouth stories passed on from generation to generation.  It is taken from diaries, journals, letters, and publications, written by one person, seen from his/her point of view.  What we have seen and lived in our lifetime is our future, the record of our family and country.  We need to share these memories. 

But first we have to remember those things, and that was the focus of our workshop.  I has story boards with hand-drawn maps of my neighborhood while I was growing up, and one of the area around our family cabin, 60 miles away.  I had a time line drawn, photo albums, yearbooks, my journal, and lots of examples of how to unearth those forgotten and hidden events. We talked about M&M’s, ice cream, friends, events, music, and even cousins. 

It’s one thing to remember something that happened, and quite another to remember the five senses associated with those things, and how what happened made you feel.  It was a small but mighty group, and I had great responses.  But unknown to me, there is a memoir group that meets twice a month and several members were there. So we spent about twenty minutes after the workshop discussing memoir writing and sharing stories. 

I really appreciated the opportunity to share my workshop, and hope those that attended enjoyed the afternoon as much as I did.  Thank you, Mary, for the invitation!  It was great fun!