Memories of Writing

I remember one day sitting on steps leading up to the back garden. I was about twelve. I had brought out a pad and pen, or probably a pencil, as fountain pens or pens we dipped into ink were all that we had. I was just sitting there looking at everything, and a butterfly hovered around me. This was the first instance that I clearly remember writing. I wrote a poem about a butterfly. I was so proud of it that I ran down multiple steps (our house was built on a hefty slope) to my dad in the garage to show him my poem. He was absolutely delighted with it and sad to say I have no idea what happened to it…lost for eternity.

I can’t remember any other instances of writing as a child.

The next instance I remember was when I had just suffered a miscarriage. I asked for pen and paper. By now, ballpoint pens were available, and I wrote about a doll called Esmeralda, and alas, those stories have also been lost. It took many years during which I taught, raised my family almost single-handedly, and studied in the early mornings before the household woke up. Time for leisure writing was nil.

It took my granddaughter Della to awaken the author in me. She was out on holiday with her parents. When they left to go back to the UK, she asked me to write to her. She was three. I pondered on how to write to her, and then inspiration! The Easter and Della series were born. I had given her a toy rabbit for Easter, and my son named it Easter, and then the creative juices started to flow.

 

Side Note That This Memory Stirred:

Pens When I Was in Primary School:

They weren’t quite quills but might as well have been. When we started school, we were not allowed to in pen. It had to be in pencil. When we got to Standard Two, I think we were allowed a dipping pen. Each desk had an inkwell which the teacher would fill with ink from a big bottle. You would dip the pen into this liquid. And use blotting paper to catch any surplus. Blotting the work as you progressed. I have no idea what the ink was made of, but as you got near the end it would stick to your pen in a glutinous mass, which would wreck your blotting paper. I think around standard 5 you were allowed a fountain pen. Most were Parker pens. I kept a bottle of ink in my desk and had one at home. The make was Quink. You would have to screw the main body of your pen off and then press a small metal bar to compress the ink reservoir (Over the bottle of ink, just in case you dislodged any remaining ink), then place the nib in the ink and release the metal clip. You were now good for several chores. I loved my fountain pens. I still have one of them packed away in a little case. Admired but not used.