Moleskin

September 1, 2008

I’m enjoying my moleskin diary.

I’ve decided to title this diary ’39′ in honor of this being my 39th year. I want to see at the end of April (my birthday) what i’ve written in this year.

Last Monday, the 25th, was the first day teaching my Creative Nonfiction class. It was a great first day (night, actually, since it runs from 7-9:50 pm). The last 30 min. I gave the class a writing activity:

Write 2 pages of a memory–something you have to squint to see. (from Abigail Thomas’ splendid book, Thinking About Memoir).

Only I ‘modified’ it– the first assignment, which i’m giving in two weeks, is to write an Entertainment piece (Movie, TV, music, etc.) and so I modified this writing activity like this:

Write 2 pages of a memory–something you have to squint to see– of one of your earliest experiences or exposures to some aspect of entertainment– a movie, tv show, concert, play, song, etc.

At least 5 people read their pieces out loud. All wonderful.

In my moleskin I wrote about me, age six or seven, wanting to stay up late to watch The Poseidon Adventure on television, but I wasn’t allowed. How I snuck out of my room, crawled under the dining room table, through the chairs–much like the Poseidon survivors crawl through the ship– and watched, fascinated, scared, the scene where the ship turns over.

“…crawling on my hands and knees, under the dining room table, through the tangle of table legs and chair legs. I remember the smell of the wood table–was it cedar? cherry? And the feel of our green shag carpet under my hands…”