Write Now

 I've been thinking of offering a writing workshop for older adults.  My peer group now.  It occurred to me that many of the prompts I used over a 35 year teaching career would work well with mature writers.  I think that's because aside from stimulating the memory and offering some critical thinking opportunities, writing helps one save their life...literally and figuratively.  There are other simple benefits too. Even writing by hand helps maintain fine motor skills and of course, writing helps people process their thoughts.  In the words if one if my favorite quotes, "How will I know what I think until I see what I say."  Just substitute write for say and there you have it.  I don't think E.M. Forester would mind.

I'd decided to start with a simple writing strategy I'll call a childhood table of contents.  If you look at the table of contents of many books, the chapter titles are often fascinating...a world in themselves.  In my classroom, we used the Table of Contents from the popular Sandra Cisneros book, The House on Mango Street.  Most of these titles are so intriguing that you know there is an interesting story there at once.  

Take a look at this portion of the Table from the Cisneros book.  Which ones jump out at you so that you are dying to know more?

For me, it's titles like Hair, and Those Who Don't that make me want to know more.  They just sound intriguing.  

So, the next step is to think about your own childhood events and experiences and what a table of contents for that might look like.  My own personal Table  contains the titles, Do You Want To Practice Kissing, When He Robs Them, and Becks.  Anything peak your curiosity.

If that exercise is successful and my little group of reluctant writers want more, I'll follow that up with some descriptive writing activities to build some skills in writing fresh similes and metaphors, and possibly take a look at some models of various genres.  Trying to emulate some of the styles and skills of our favorite writers is always worthwhile.  Aside from building more skills, it serves to remind us how skilled there writers are and hopefully we retain fresh appreciation for them.

The longer we live, the more our memory plays tricks on us.  I'm sure working with memory will bring many confusing or contradictory experiences to the surface.  That's OK.  Writers of memoir don't have to be exact.  We are not trying to recall every exact detail from something 50 or 60 years ago.  We are retelling and recreating the emotions felt.

A Lifetime

 Disneyland in Anaheim, California, opened in 1955. For young Baby Boomers, this was Nirvana.  The popular Disney TV show had become a reality that they could visit.  All the familiar characters were there as well as the various "lands" they knew from the TV show.  You could actually go to a place called Adventure Land, or Tomorrow Land, Frontier Land and even Fantasy Land, complete with Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Two brothers down the street from me went to that opening day.  Their father worked for Technicolor and folks in the movie industry were among those privileged to go to the opening day.  My sister and I went a few years later thanks to the generosity of a New York uncle who worked for a media agency and sent us credentials for complementary tickets.  Even the E ticket coupons, the hardest to get.  I was about 10 years old and my sister 11.  We went with our parents and my Aunt Dorothy and her husband, my Uncle Clery.  They had no children but were just as eager to see this much talked about new amusement park.  

So, one day in the Fall of 1998 we made our way from the San Fernando Valley to the sunny skis of Anaheim.  Until Disneyland, the area was just about all orange groves in those days.  I recall the immense parking lot and the iconic entrance to the park.  You could see the Monorail that circled the park from the parking lot.  The future really was right here.  Once inside the gates, we decided to make our way to Main Street USA, the section modeled after small town America  in the early 20th century. To get there we boarded a replica of a horse drawn streetcar of the era.

My Aunt and I sat together on a small bench while the rest of my family sat behind us two by two.  As we made our way toward Main Street, I began comparing this streetcar we were on with the electric streetcars I had ridden as a child growing up in and around Los Angeles.  The obvious difference was there energy source.  Looking at the large draft horse pulling the Disneyland streetcar toward Main Street, I began to think about the evolution of transportation that took place during my Aunt's lifetime.  I figured she was born around 1910, and may even have ridden on a horse drown streetcar as a child.  As the Monorail circled the park above us, the entire evolution of urban transportation revealed itself before me.  I wondered, at that moment what forms of urban transportation I might see when I reached my 60s or 70s?  

Most light rail rapid transportation systems today resemble offshoots of that Disneyland train.  The BART trains of the Bay Area and the Metro system in Washington, DC, are notable examples that I have ridden.  I often think of that horse drawn trolly car from Disneyland when I see or ride them.  

II.

This past week, I got the newsletter of the Bay Area Writing Project, the organization of teachers at the UC Berkeley school of Education.  I have been active in that group of educators for many years, since the time I became a teacher/consultant offering teacher workshops to recent years with many contributions to their digital magazine which appears 4 times a year online.  The latest email newsletter described a series of workshops being offered recently at the beginning of the current school year.  What stands out is that every one deals with how teachers can adapt and/or use AI.  To be sure, AI represents a formidable threat and challenge to educators.  It's on everyone's mind.  Obviously, some training and new skill sets are on the horizon for professionals too.  If I apply the same notion of evolution from the streetcar analogy mentioned above, it looks like this.  

When I was a graduate student in the school of Education at UC Berkeley, a secondary credential was earned by completing a year of coursework and well as various requirements like taking a test on the California State Constitution.  Another requirement was to pass a test on the use of audio-visual equipment.  On the bottom floor of Tolman Hall, a media lab was set up ands various stations were available for credential candidates to learn and practice audio visual skills.  This included showing a film after threading a movie projector, setting up various forms of slide shows including those synchronized with soundtracks.   But the toughest skill was to record from phonograph to reel to reel tape recorder and then edit the recording to accompany a specific project.  When we had a few minutes to spare from our days of student teaching in the morning and attending classes in the afternoon, my colleagues and I would drop into the media lab to brush up on the various skills needed to pass the test and be fully credentialed.  Today, those skills are mostly passed.  Videos come from You Tube at the click of a mouse.  All manner of recorded material comes from a computer as well.  Bringing a tape recorder of any kind today will probably be a new experience for students.  

Today, that media lab has become a computer lab.  Bringing audio visual materials into a classroom is a hundred times easier today than it was back then.  Like that streetcar ride behind the horses, I wonder what will replace the computer lab that replaced the media lab?

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.  

You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt.

Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.  

I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed.  A recent example would be the Willie Mays shirt I recently bought.  It portrays what has come to be called "the catch." Of course I'm speaking of Mays catch of a drive off the bat of Vic Hertz in the 1954 World Series.  Make no mistake, I like the shirt, but when it arrived, the person depicted looked less like Willie Mays than I expected and the image was a bit blurry.  No Matter. It's clear enough for any baseball fan to get the point and it lets the world know I'm a fan....a very big fan.

Another sports image on a t-shirt I have is probably a rare and collectable tee that I chanced to buy while attending a basketball game on the Cal campus. (UC Berkeley)  Titled "The Play" it depicts the most famous play in all of college football when Cal beat Stanford on the last play of the game with multiple handoffs and lateral passes.  The last Cal player storms into the end zone and crashes into the trombone player of the Stanford band who had occupied the end zone thinking the game would soon be over.  It's all depicted on the t-shirt with arrows and lines, x's and o's.

In 1982, when I went to the Kentucky Derby with full press credentials, I brought home a couple of t-shirts as souvenirs.  Over the years I wore them out.  That happens with clothing you love.  My New Orleans t-shirts enjoyd the same fate.  I sure do miss my Neville Brothers shirt, but it served me well.

Sometimes a t-shirt can serve other purposes.  I play harmonica with a group of old guys who meet frequently to jam.  I need to know the key of the song we're playing so I can use the correct harp.  That's why I jumped at the chance to buy the t-shirt I saw advertised with "What Key We In" written on the front.  Int sometimes works.  

T-shirts are like bumper stickers.  They advertise our beliefs, interests, and passions.  In my 3+ decades in the classroom, I've seen kids wear many t-shirts.  Once, a kid got sent home because his shirt depicted a cartoonish character with his head up his ass...literally.  Made me wonder if any parent saw him leave for school that morning.  I could just picture him walking out the front door waving good-bye wearing that shirt.  I don't think so.