I’ve had this idea since I turned 40 and never got around to it–collecting my favorite story, poem, song, and piece of art that I created in each decade of my life. I think why I never got around to it is I took the project a bit too seriously. So, I’m going to do the Festschrift Lite version for my 50th birthday and just go with whatever I find easily that makes me smile. So, let’s start with 0-10.
Art/Poem
What’s extant from my first decade is largely what my mom liked enough to scrapbook, so you’re getting a lot of her favorites here. And she was a big fan of “Puppy in the Bamboo.”
Story
Hands down, this has to be “The Bermuda Mystery,” which I wrote in 2nd grade and was my first story–all 88 scrawling pages, which was as good an indicator as any that my folks had a baby novelist on their hands. The project was so massive almost everyone in my family got involved: you can see my handwriting (print and cursive), my mom’s handwriting where she took dictation, and I think even a bit of my dad’s for a minute. Definitely someone got stuck at our old Smith Corona for several pages. The story has all the hallmarks of my Early Period: orphans, archaeology, gemstones, and a villain named Theresa. My villains were always named Theresa. Couldn’t tell you why because the few Theresas I remember from my childhood were nice people. Anyway, “The Bermuda Mystery” is about two orphaned sisters who go sailing to the Bermuda Triangle with their uncle, who they hope will adopt them, and discover an underwater portal that takes them back to an ancient civilization called Heticia. They avoid some sharks, and a villain named Theresa, and end up with both a treasure chest and adoption certificates. Plotwise, I believe myself to have been heavily influenced by the library discard classic Palace Under the Sea by Elizabeth P. Heppner with a sprinkling of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. “The Bermuda Mystery” even came with a dedication–to the guy who owned the gem and mineral store I used to drag my parents to. The whole thing ended up becoming a minor scandal at Montgomery Elementary because apparently I complained to Mrs. Borden about staying up all night to finish the story, and she thought my parents chained me to a typewriter and made me write an 88-page story, when it was quite the other way around, and she reported them to Principal Jones, who called them in for a chat during which I’m pretty confident everyone concluded that I was a drama queen. Anyway, if you want see what all the fuss was about, you can suffer through a few pages here.
Music
Similarly, there’s only one real choice in this category: “One Magical Touch.” I wrote it when I was 5 or 6, and my mom transcribed it onto staff paper for me. It’s kind of apocalyptic lounge music? I struggle to describe it. But I do get a whiff of Neil Diamond as well as the Bill Gaither Trio.
The Rookery 