I have so many coffee stories that would be  good fits for this memoirs prompt, but not one of them would be worth a squat without this one… My grandmother lived alone in a tar shingle sided house atop one of the “mini-mountains” of the Foothills to the Appalachians  in southeastern Ohio. She tended...
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Just this morning, as I was drinking my coffee, the Today Show had a segment about kids drinking coffee. I laughed when it came on, and smiled at the memory that came rushing back. I was introduced to coffee at an early age. Everybody in my house drank coffee was I a kid. My...
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Almost 40 years ago, I made and drank my first cup of coffee and I’ll admit that I was not really impressed with that brown nectar that some people in the world refer to as Arabian wine. I was young, working in an office that rotated the female employees through a schedule of taking...
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A Memorable Meal by Karen It is an early July Sunday — monsoon season, Tucson-style. Two residents of the Spadefoot Housing Co-op sprawl across assorted porch furniture; two more adhere to faded living room upholstery. Ours is a parched, spent, 108° quiet. We have no juice in the house, and for that matter, we...
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This week’s exercise for writing memoir is all about coffee and you could win a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s book Old Friend from Far Away. Being from Canada, I grew up drinking tea. When I started working, we used to go to a little coffee shop in an office building across the street and...
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This is submitted for the Memoir Writing Groups prompt, . The best meal I ever had actually was in June of 2006, and began sometime well before it was served, even before getting that emergency phone call while stretching my legs in Venore Tennessee. But, I’ll start this little tale in Venore, an area...
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Seven Up Six Up Five Up Four Up One Two Three Up Two Up One Up The little girl repeated her mantra, sometimes aloud, sometimes in her head, as the rubber ball bounced off the cement wall of the school. It was quiet, being a Saturday and school out for the weekend. She lived...
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“This way, Karen,” Mother calls to me from across the Safeway parking lot. I walk straight ahead. “Over here.” The line of my mouth matches the straight line I walk. I am angry at her for not listening to what I know she can hear. So many times I have tried to explain: In...
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Continuing in Memoir Writing with exercises which explore our senses, here are two more. The first is to give a memory of sound (trying not to use the word ”sound”). Here is Natalie Goldberg’s example, ”I remember hearing the lawn mower as I lay in bed when I was twelve, reading Gone With the...
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This is my second submission for this week’s Memoirs Group prompt, . Although I announced that my entry would be a tough one for me to write and post, I decided to keep it personal and submit a second entry that may not be much prettier as depressing images go. I will talk about...
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Man oh man, we are off to a great start in the memoir writing group. Our first exercise was to write about an aunt, mother or grandmother. And we got stories about all three. Bev and Petunia talked about being loved and accepted by their grandmothers and the lessons they learned. I wrote about...
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This week in the memoir writing group we will be focusing on our senses. I will add one prompt today, another mid-week, and a final one on Friday. These exercises are from page 6 (Test 1) from Natalie Goldberg’s book, “Old Friend From Far Away.” She suggests that you begin each answer with “I...
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“To have an old friend visit from far away – what a delight!” What if that old friend was you? The quote just mentioned is from the introduction to Natalie Goldberg’s book, “Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir.” It was a birthday present from a dear friend and I thought...
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