Dear Listers: Most of us spend all of our time collecting as much as we can on our dead ancestors. We need to remember to write our own life stories for those that come after us. And to do it now, while our memories are clear. I am sure I remembered a lot more when I was 20 or 30 than what easily comes to mind now. Some suggestions are: actually take pen to paper -- there is something creative about this act. Things can just flow from brain to hand. And it has an added bonus that your descendants will have something written in your own hand. Such a treat! You can type it up as well to save electronically. begin a sentance and see where it leads you --- you don't have to have a specific scenario in mind. play music from a specific time in your life --- music seems to imprint itself in some magic way in our lives and invokes memory of when we heard it first, where we were, what our surroundings looked like [in detail!], even what the weather may have been like or aromas we experienced. A song can bring to mind a particular person at a particular time in your life.... "Canadian Sunset" always brings my sister Betsy to mind, when she was younger than 19. She was 16 years my senior. use aromas to invoke memories --- there are certain scents that you associate with times in your life, places, people, events. Bacon cooking -- brings me back to my summer home on Sunday mornings. Bay Rum Cologne -- brings back memories of my father at Christmas. Toll house cookies baking -- rainy days after school. What aromas do you have at hand to invoke your memories of days past? get out the photo album or the shoe box of photos --- write down the story that comes to mind about the photo or what you recall of the day it was taken. While you are at it -- write down who is in the photo! Don't leave your descendants wondering who the heck the people in the pictures are. Be sure to use real names, not just gems like "Babe and me 1932." take a look at the heirlooms in your home -- consider not only what your elders left to you, but also what you are leaving for the next generation as an heirloom. Write about its place in your life or the person that it came from. How did you come to have it in your possession? What do you know of its history? I have my mother's stuffed Stief lion. "It's only a stuffed animal." Well, that is what my father thought in the 1930's when he threw away my mother's grandmother's stuffed lion she had saved. The one I have is its replacement. And all of my mother's grandchildren and now great grandchildren associate Lions with my mother. They think of her whenever they see one. She did not collect them, but they buy them in her memory. examine the milestones in history that occurred during your lifetime -- Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down? Where were you when Kennedy died? Nixon resigned? Thatcher came to office? Where were you when the Viet Nam Conflict ended? Where were you when the men landed on the moon? What are your memories about the Korean Conflict, World War II, rationing? Who was the President/National Leader that had the greatest effect on how your life is/was? How did the Great Depression affect your family? What contraptions have been invented during your lifetime? What invention/scientific breakthrough would most surprise your Ancestors or surprise your descendents did not exist before you were born? Who was the storyteller you remember in your family? take a trip to the library or the garage and look at old magazines and newspapers --- note the clothing styles, modern appliances, vehicle design. What memories do they invoke? Share the details of your first experience driving a car! What hair styles were popular? Did you get the Mom haircut of bowl over head and scissors trim around? Did you "die of shame" as a teen when the swimming pool turned your hair green? And why was that not a good thing?<g> as you do your household chores --- consider.... how were they different when you were a child? What were your responsibilities? What tools did you use? My gawd! What the heck is a mangle!<g> it surely does not sound like a good thing to use on anything, even clothes. Make a pact with yourself to write. To do it now. To make a schedule of when you will or how often. A holiday memory with each holiday? A weekly paragraph or page on a topic? Check in with yourself monthly or quarterly? No less than every year on your birthday or Christmas? Or on the ocassion of each of your children or grandchildren's birthdays, share a story or memory that revolves around them. Save it for when you are no longer here. My mother was a diary keeper. Her diary had a name and she wrote letters to it. Her entries began, "Dear Tim....." This might be a way to make it easier to keep writing. Correspond with yourself. Don't worry about perfect writing. The object is to get your thoughts out of your brain and onto paper. Don't keep your memories locked in a file cabinet that will disappear when you do. You or your descendants can always polish the grammar, spelling and order of the stories later. Writing too tiresome? Get out the tape recorder and talk with yourself. Invite an interested descendant to transcribe your ramblings or do it your self. You might even consider sharing a memory or two now and again with the list. It may spur them on to sit down and write. Happy Trails, Lauren