I’ve written already about some tools to help you tell your story (or stories).

I thought I’d share a bit about how I’m doing with my own story-telling . . . and what I’m doing, specifically, to make my story-telling simply happen.

(It’s not easy! You definitely have to decide you’re going to take the bull by the horns and make him move in the direction you want him to.)

But I think it’s worthwhile.

Several days ago, I woke up early in the morning thinking about a couple of memories from when my parents’ family (of which, of course, I was a part!) moved from upstate New York to California. 1964. The events I recalled may have occurred in 1965.

Not a big memory. But it was rather vivid. And it was something my kids have never experienced.

I wrote it up, first, for my siblings and my dad. I wondered what memories my recollections might generate for them.

They produced a few.

But here’s what I wrote. I thought, perhaps, you’d find it inspiring for you.

Nothing fancy. Just a few “stray” memories. And I began my telling very much as I did here:

The other day I woke up early in the morning thinking about a couple of memories from when we moved back to California in the mid-60s. Specifically, I remembered the “gas wars.” I remember that prices got down, I believe, to the low teens–something like 13.4 cents a gallon. No more always xx.9 prices! Gas stations were trying to undercut each other by tenths of a penny per gallon . . . and by multiple gift stamp offers (S&H Green Stamps, for example). I seem to recall stations that were offering at least “4X Green Stamps” and, even, “5X Green Stamps.”

S&H Green Stamps

For some reason, remembering that, I was reminded, too, of the driving trip Dad, Ted, Pete (?), and I took across the country when we moved from Syracuse to Palo Alto. I can’t figure out how we would have driven on such a zigzag path, but, as I recall, we not only drove across New York State, to end up, the first evening, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But then, somehow, as I recall, we wound up driving down somewhere in Oklahoma (?). It was night time. There were lots of oil refineries and oil refinery lights. (That’s the memory that was sparked by my remembrance of Palo Alto and the gas wars!)

But then how did we wind up traveling north, up through the Rockies?

I remember when we were driving along the highway up into the Rocky Mountains, the highway was still being built. –That would have been the ongoing construction of the interstate highway system that we tend to take for granted today.

I have no recollection of coming back down out of the Rocky Mountains, but somehow we wound up going through Reno, Nevada, and on to Palo Alto.

Notice how I didn’t remember many things perfectly. I could only go “so far.”

It’s okay. Remember: I said I shared it first with my siblings and my dad. I thought they might actually correct some of my memories. (It turns out Pete definitely was on the trip. I thought, vaguely, that he had been. But I wasn’t sure. –It was nice to get his confirmation.

Similarly with other details. My siblings added certain layers. And they thanked me for sparking some memories for them.

It took me a little extra work to find the Wikipedia article about S&H Green Stamps and to locate the photo online. But it really wasn’t tough to put the story together.

Actually, I made the job a bit easier for myself: I have owned Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking for a couple of years. It works wonders. You definitely do have to go back and reread whatever you said to make sure Dragon didn’t accidentally insert a wrong word here or there. But if you find yourself able to talk more readily than you do typing–or, worse, handwriting!–then let the technology work for you!

******

Well, then, here’s a story–or set of stories–I wrote up this afternoon. I posted it directly to my personal blog, then sent an email to all my family members–those of my generation (and my dad) as well as my kids–to tell them the post is there:

Okay. For Memory #2, please see my latest post on my blog: Super Cooper in a 22 Looper.

Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Dad/John

I’ll be interested to see what comes of it!

Does this spark something for you?

I hope so!

And I’d love to hear about your memories . . . and/or what your retelling your stories does for your family.

Please.

Let’s share!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 3:56 pm and is filed under children, family relationships, heritage, kids, legacy, success, values. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.