Salizar Street

I think I am landing on a Monday and Thursday posting schedule.  Now that I am actually up and running in the world of blogging I’m having fun.  It’s much better than the, “Just do it already,” hanging over my head.

I have been writing music since I was in Junior High.  I feel comfortable with that process.  I’ve written musical scripts for my students for years and have had great success with directing these productions in school and church.  But now that I am attempting to write my thoughts in memoir form I feel very intimidated.  So I’m “schooling” myself.  I’ve checked out books on the craft of writing from the fabulous Multnomah County Library, registered for writing workshops, devoured my 3 issues of Writer’s Digest Magazine and searched blogs and websites till my progressive lenses have glazed over.

I am finding one of the books I have checked out, OLD FRIEND FROM FAR AWAY by Natalie Goldberg, very helpful.  It has hundreds of writing exercises to free your memories deeply buried under layers of life, denial, or maybe just dementia.

One of her assignments was to write for 10 minutes using the phrase, “I Remember.”  Here is what I remember…

I remember dusk on Salizar Street in San Diego.  The ticking sound of Daddy’s red Valiant as it rounded the corner and entered the driveway announced his arrival home.  I remember being so mad at him when he chopped off the two lowest branches on our favorite front yard trees making it difficult to jump up and climb.  Tree climbing was my whole life back then. 

I remember finding a nickel on the ground and hopping on my pink Schwinn banana seat bike and travelling on my secret mission to the 7-11, left turn/right turn/left/right/left/right/left, to buy a piece of gum from the gumball machine out front.  I just knew all the big kids there thought I was neato because I rode my bike all by myself and had money for a treat.  After my expensive purchase I immediately rode back home.  Once there I couldn’t even enjoy the chewing process for fear I would be found out and get in trouble.

I remember the Hippie rock band rehearsing in their garage down the street.  I wondered if they were smoking that marijuana as they did their version of Three Dog Night.  I can still see the mom coming out of the front door and shooing us nosey neighborhood kids away.  I thought it was weird that those Hippies still lived with their mom.

I loved playing in the parking lot of the church at the end of the block singing the lyrics of Paul Revere and the Raiders at the top of my lungs.  I remember the sound of my roller skates against the pavement.

For some reason our family inherited a big 4x4 animal cage and kids from surrounding streets found out about it and came to play.  We would pack as many kids as we could inside and then roll them around the yard.  It was the most fun ever.  I remember how those same strangers kept interrupting our Girl Scout meeting the next day to see if we could come out and play again.  I thought we were so cool because of that stupid cage. 

         

Salizar Street; a great place to spend 7 years of my life, or was it 6.  Who knows, we were always moving.  But that street has more memoires than 10 minutes can hold. 

So there you go.  Give it a try.  Spend 10 minutes reminiscing with an “I remember” story. Let me know what you remember.HoHoHo