What to write about

In class last night our teacher told us not to use email or text message shorthand. It's not proper English and shouldn't be used. Period. It's not good to write for a group learning to read by using misspelled or made up words (though if it's good enough for Shakespeare it should be good enough for me, not that I would ever compare myself to the bard).

Today E was telling me that I won the race and my prize was a toy. "What color is the toy?" I asked.

"It's purpleyish, greenyish, red." I know those words have never, and probably will never, appear in a dictionary but I loved them. He has started to tell more and more stories. The adventures of Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible and Peri Po, his stuffed dinosaur are so cute. I am tempted at times to write them down but I can't get to it when he tells me the stories and I forget them by the time I have pad and paper.

Last night CC also told us to think about the kinds of books we liked as kids. We didn't own many books and they were almost all gifts from people other than my parents. Let's see, there were the Little Golden Books: The Little Engine That Could and The Me Too Book. There was the big book of Richard Scary stories and pictures. My grandmother gave me a collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales that I barely cracked open, we read it now, 30 years later. My aunt and uncle gave my sister and me a large picture book of a foreign folk tale. Mine was a Chinese story about an emperor and a nightingale, my sister got some Russian story. I can see still see the illustrations but the text or even the plot lines are a mystery to me now. I have been trying to find those books at my Dad's whenever I go home but they are just no where to be found.

CC also told us write about what interests us. I have been trying to figure out what that is and I've decided it's not conducive to the picture book genre. I like histories, mysteries and reference or factual information. I love genealogy and think I may use long dead members of my family as a jumping off point for easy readers about historical events, settings, etc.

I have a relative that was in the US Civil War, one from the Spanish American War, even relatives that were here for the Revolutionary War, but as Quakers the likelihood they participated is pretty slim. I could research and then write the Cumberland trail stories of the O'Keefes or the Sester's journey across the sea from Germany.

Whatever I write I want it to entertain, excite, and educate E. I want him to know about our family and see that history can be interesting, especially when you have a connection to it, relatively speaking.

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The sun is warm on the shoulders of the groups gathered on the hill. The grass is so green and the cloudless sky so blue that the floral prints and tie-dyed clothing of the revelers seem dull by comparison. A soft breeze blows gauzy fabrics and long hair through the air and across bare skin. Music and sweet smoke drift by. Grapes burst in an explosion of tart sweetness in my mouth. It is finally summer.

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I was much too young for Haight Ashbury, a toddler during the summer of love, but I have always imagined being in San Francisco sitting with a view of the bay, and I have always imagined it this way. Perhaps it's the influence of the opening credits of "Full House", perhaps it's the grainy films of hippies they show in documentaries.

At midnight it doesn't much matter. I need to get some sleep and hopefully I will dream of this scene, enjoy grapes and a bit of music.

K