I Remember

I Remember

With thanks to Sigrid Nunez and Joe Brainard

 

I remember thinking an elemeno P was a special kind of P.

I remember Spam for dinner.

I remember not knowing how to say “segue.” 

I remember wanting to catch all the turtles on the Reservoir and bring them home.

I remember being mad at turtles.

I remember the dog my parents gave away. She nipped. She was perfect.

I remember chipped beef on toast, which we only ate when my dad was out of town.

I remember the dogs of Sherwood Forest, among them Bosco, Cluny Brown, Pepe, Mamma Mia, and Pork Chop.

I remember diving off the high dive for the last time.

I remember belly flops.

I remember Kick-the-Can on Friar Tuck Circle.

I remember the taste of fear.

I remember including the mussels when I counted how many pets I had. 

I remember carrying my nextdoor neighbors over the pine cones.

I remember never wearing shoes in the summer.

I remember stepping in dog doo.

I remember drinking water from the hose and how you had to wait for it to cool off.

I remember crabapple wars.

I remember Miss Tillie walking down the street in her slip.

I remember wondering why the Howells took so many clothes on a three-hour tour.

I remember the scent of sweet olive by the back door.

I remember my new PF Flyers did not make me run faster.

I remember asking my parents to buy me an ocelot.

 

Draft, Susan Thomsen, 2024

*****

In her novel The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nunez writes, “There is a foolproof cure for writer’s block, according to a teacher I know: start with the words I remember.” The narrator, a writing teacher, recalls assigning Joe Brainard’s book I Remember to her class and then asking them to write in a similar style. Recognizing that some of her students might be intimidated by such an idea, she suggests “they make two sets [of lines starting with “I remember"], one in which they wrote down true reminiscences, another in which they made things up, and intersplice them.”

I could not resist, of course! Nunez’s narrator was right: the sentences just flowed when I started with “I remember.” Making some of it up helped keep me going, though in the end I tossed those parts. I plan to read the Brainard soon; I didn’t do so yet because I didn’t want to inadvertently lift anything. 

Is this a poem? Good question. Was this fun to write? Yes!

The Poetry Friday roundup for April 26th is at the blog There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

Comments

[Linda Baie]

Feels like a poem to me, Susan. I enjoyed your explanation of your inspiration, too, and connect to some of your "I remember" memories, crabapple wars, and I laughed at others, like the turtles and counting the mussels! What fun to see what would happen with students, too! Thanks for the book titles!

[Michelle Kogan]

Love your first line with "elemeno P" in there, I always enjoyed reciting that part. Thanks Susan, for your very textural remembering poem, for I think it's definitely a poem!

[Tabatha]

Why DID the Howells bring all those clothes on a three-hour tour? Great list, Susan! (Is a crabapple war when you get the crabapples to pop off the stem so you can "shoot" them?)

[Susan]

Tabatha, ha! A crabapple war is when you hurl crabapples at each other until someone’s mom rings the dinner bell or hears a ruckus & makes everyone stop before “somebody gets hurt.” Sides are chosen quickly; no real beef is involved. 😆

Michelle, thank you to a fellow member of the Elemeno P Club!

Linda, you’re so welcome! Did the crabapple wars in your neighborhood operate similarly?🤣

[Jane @ Raincity Librarian]

Oh, what a powerful writing prompt! I want to try this with my tweens, they're such a funny little bunch, always talking about when they were young and when they were kids, as if they aren't all just 12 years old. ;-) I'm curious to learn what they remember!

"A three hour tour, a three hour tour!"

[Karin Fisher-Golton]

That is some excellent writing advice, thank you! I enjoyed your remembrances very much. Aw, the dog-that brings to mind some sweet and poignant animal memories of my own.

[Susan T.]

Jane, I heard a young teen say something the other day about "when I was young," and I almost started laughing. Too cute. I started with "I Remember" and just wrote down everything that came to mind. Later I saw a theme (kind of) and edited. Let us know if you try it with your kiddos!

Karin, so many pet and animal-related memories poured out when I started writing! Yes, that sweet dog. I hope her next home was wonderful!

[Margaret Simon]

So many of your memories are my memories. I've always wondered about the Howells. I also wanted to rescue turtles from the reservoir. Not really meaning to be harmful, we tossed sticks and stones toward them.
I want to do this exercise. You've inspired me to remember. Did you run behind the mosquito truck? My brother and I got only one spanking in our lifetime for that.

[Marcie Flinchum Atkins]

These memories are so great, so specific and so relatable. I think it's a poem. But I also think each line could be the start of a whole new poem. So much rich material.

[Susan T.]

Margaret, it's all Jackson! And, yes, I did run behind the mosquito truck, aka "fog machine." Alas, more than once. Those Reservoir turtles were so frustrating. I was certain they wanted to come home with me, which was, er, not the case.

Marcie, thanks for your kind words! My childhood neighborhood was packed with kids, and we had a lot of adventures, some sanctioned, most not. You've given me an idea about a series with your suggestion, too.

[Mary Lee Hahn]

Chipped beef on toast. Yes!
I often berate myself for not remembering more of my childhood, but I think if I sat down and started a list like this, memories would flow. Thanks for the mentor text and the inspiration!

[Rose Cappelli]

Love this exercise and will try it! Any one of them could be the start of something longer. And yay to remembering Spam and chipped beef.

[Susan T.]

Mary Lee, if your mom or dad was in the military, chances are that you ate that when they weren't home! I gather it was a staple for WWII-era service people. I hope you give the "I Remember" exercise a try. It's fun, and I do think you'll recall more than you expect.

Rose, yes! I was just talking about Spam with some friends lately, and one of them and I mentioned how much we liked it. Ha! I liked the chipped beef, too.

[PATRICIA J FRANZ]

Such a fun way to get the writing juices going, Susan! Thank you for this. And thank you for "mussels as pets"!!

[Susan]

Ha! Thank you for reading, Patricia. As you can imagine, the mussels were not with us for very long.

[Karen Edmisten]

I love this! And I relate to a lot of these memories too. :)

Chipped beef on toast? Yes. (Hated it. And yup, military family and Mom often made that when it was just her and us kids.) Spam, barefoot summers, dog doo, drinking from the water hose, wondering about all that luggage for a three-hour tour. It's all there.

And the word I remember not knowing how to say was "imagine." I read it in a comic book — "Imagine that!" the character said — and in my head I heard it as, "Imogene that!" :D

I also remember hearing about Joe Brainard and the "I Remember" prompt from a Zoom workshop with Dani Shapiro.

Time to tackle this prompt again, methinks.

[Susan]

Karen, that is a hoot that we share so many of these! My dad was in the Navy during World War II, and the chipped beef was a no-go for him in the following years. I’m sure there were a few other items on the list too. I could have included “I remember liver for dinner” as a line, but that is something I wish I could forget!

[janice scully]

What delightful things to remember! Now I'm remembering too, things that I doubt I'll ever forget from back when I looked at the world only as a child. A good source for poems. Thanks, Susan!

[Susan T.]

Thanks for stopping by, Janice! I was so happy to try out this idea from Sigrid Nunez's book. It seemed so doable, and it was.

[Denise Krebs]

O, my! Susan, this is so fun. I loved reading these. I think every child of the 60's wondered "why the Howells took so many clothes on a three-hour tour." That was so fun to read and it made me laugh aloud and have to share your post with my hubby. I also felt like I grew up in your neighborhood, stepping on dog doo and drinking out of the hose. Now I want to start collecting my "I remembers"

[Carol Varsalona]

Susan, this has been a not-planned weekend filled with family so here I am trying to make the rounds. I enjoyed reading your I remember memories. I remember that I never ate Spam. Childhood memories are not always available but your list poem shares many. Thanks for the interesting format.

[Cathy M.]

The end of the month is a perfect time for a tip like this. Thank you. I enjoyed reading all that you remember. I have a feeling each of these lines could become their own poem.

[Susan T.]

Denise, ha! Yes, kids of the 60s and 70s, minimally supervised and living our best lives outside. Definitely collect your own "I Remember"s; I'd love to read the poem that results!

Carol, I am slowly getting around to reading all Poetry Friday, too. In The Vulnerables, the narrator writing teacher says that she can always spot the lines that are made up. I found that to be the case when I was writing this too, which is why I edited them out of the draft.

Cathy, yes, these could each begin a poem! That could be a fun series to work on.