Evoking memories

Momentous memories  Consider your strongest memory of something which happened before What day/event stands out most clearly?  Describe the event in 2 sentences  List other details which you recall-eg: what were you wearing; where had you just been; what had you eaten last; what was the weather like; how did the ‘event’ begin?

Sensory associations  What do you recall about the following/  Weather  Colours  Smells  Textures  Sounds  Tastes  Which one of these dominates?

Making Writing Interesting  Here is a first draft of a piece of writing about a memory. How would you make it more interesting?  An early memory for me is of playing on my bike on the street. I had not had my bike very long and I was very proud of it. My friend didn’t have a bike and I was giving her a turn. I was sitting behind her on the carrier. I thought it would be funny to tickle her and make her laugh, but when I did, we wobbled and both fell off. I was fine but the bike fell on her and gouged a big piece of skin from her leg. She was screaming in pain and all I could think of to do, was to look for the missing piece of skin and try to stick it back in the hole in her leg. I never found it, and to this day she still has a big scar.

Better! Sometimes I think about my childhood friend Willie. I wonder if she thinks about me when she looks at the huge scar on her leg. When we were 7 years old, she was newly arrived from Holland and her English was very strange. She used to say to me “Jill, vill you be like to play vis me at mine house dis day?’ I thought it was very exotic to have a friend who came from the other side of the world. No-one else in my class did. Willie was very envious of the red bike I’d been given at Christmas. My dad helped to teach her how to ride and it wasn’t long before we ventured into forbidden tricks. “Never ever double!” said Dad. “You’ll have a nasty accident if you do.” Doubling was a fast efficient way to get places so we did. We got pretty good at it too. One Friday afternoon, I was on the carrier behind her and the temptation to tickle her was too great to resist. The resulting wobble was catastrophic. I landed clear of the bike. Willie was under it, screaming in agony

Untangling the bike from her legs, I saw the problem. A hole the size of a half crown piece was gouged from her leg. There was no blood yet, just the horror of a huge hole and her screams. All I could think of was to hunt for the missing piece of skin. Somehow, I thought, if I found the piece of skin and stuck it back in that hole, everything wouldn’t be so bad. I didn’t want to go for help without at least having done something useful. My terror from her screams was compounded by guilt and the certainty of intense and cruel punishment. Sure enough, the bike was locked up for a week and Willie was stuck inside, hating me and resting her poor mutilated leg. I was a criminal. I was surely on the road to being a bad person for life. I wonder if she looks at her leg now and still hates me.