Pink Think: “All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, this is when I became myself.” – Rita Dove
My thirteen year old daughter came home the other day with more horse posters she bought with her own money. I used to tell her to at least leave some “white space” (well, in her case “sky-blue space”) and not cover all the walls of her bedroom with posters. This time, I just laughed and decided, it’s her room – so long as it’s safe and in good taste (and is okay with the younger sister she shares the room with), she can do what she wants.
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This makes me think of a passage I love from Writing Fiction for Children: Stories Only You Can Tell by Judy K. Morris:
Make a list of the things in your childhood room or your children’s rooms. Don’t forget the intangibles, such as a curious shadow or eerie street sounds. If an item evokes a memory or story, forget the list and write down everything pertaining to that. There are reasons we remember, reasons an object evokes strong feeling: the swing hanging in the doorway, the pillow’s softness have meaning for us. Perhaps you can mine some such memory for a story worth telling.
Here is a list of things from my childhood room:
1. A manual typewriter. I wrote many stories, letters, and copied passages from Little Women and countless other books.
2. Sea shells on my shelf from summers spent at the beach
3. A study desk whose top drawer was stuffed with my writings
4. A rotary phone colorfully decorated with white-out, markers and stickers
5. Two cots – I shared the room with my older sister – covered with cushions and woven mats
6. Windows facing out to the neighborhood tennis courts and our garden, which let in the glare of tennis lights and the tangy scent of the papaya tree
7. A little red five-year diary that my mother gave me when I turned 12 and which (I am so glad) I wrote in faithfully.
If I had the the inclination to put up a poster (I didn’t), I would have put up one of John Cusack.
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What is/was in YOUR childhood room?
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