With my classes I use The Quickwrite Handbook by Linda Rief to bring out the writer in my students. Today's Slice of Life is inspired by one of the many mentor texts collected by Rief over her many years of teaching and shared in this book. The one in particular that set my fingers flying is "First Memory" by Georgia Heard.
First Memory
I make my way downstairs to ask Mom to take me to Marylou's house. Mom is asleep on the couch, eight months pregnant with a baby and we don't know yet if it is a boy or a girl. I go upstairs and get her a glass of water because that's my job. I leave it on the table next to her and decide to walk to Marylou's by myself because this three year old knows the way. I make it down the hill and across the busiest road around, careful to look both ways and run as fast as I can. I walk in the worn grass path next to the road, fully confident, on my way to play dolls.
I am four houses away when I spot a police car coming in the opposite direction. I just KNOW that he will stop me, so I jump behind a nearby bush and crouch. My heart races as I see him pass by, make a sharp turn, pull up, and pop out.
Tall and dressed in gray with a stripe down the side of his pants he asks me where I live. "One North Birch Drive, Nanuet, NY," I spout out. I had practiced my address and phone number multiple time with Mom and my sister, Kathy. Somewhat impressed [or maybe relieved] he straps me into the front of the car, and I am at the ready to point out my house.
The thrill of riding in a police car ebbs as I near the house; I know I'm going to be in BIG trouble. He walks me to the door, and rings the bell a few times [Mom must still be asleep]. She comes to the door, and he scolds her a lot for not watching me better.
When he leaves, I get scolded and spanked with a hairbrush.
The Takeaway
Well, I never did that again! But, besides becoming a more compliant [and safe] child, the clarity and KNOWINGNESS of my thoughts, as best I can recall them, made me a better mom. I totally respected the capabillities of my children at that age, when intuition is trusted as an equal, or even more dominant, partner with logic. Do we forget much of what we knew as children and seek to remember it again as we age?