06 July 2011

I am from...

I am from cast iron skillets, from white Keds and yellow foul weather gear.

I am from the afternoon southerly, splintery docks, the cannon fired at sunset.

I am from coral bells and basket of gold, blue hosta and purple irises, from cherry trees made for climbing, and ivy covered walls.

I am from Christmas Eve and blonde hair, from Albert and Marcus and Marie. Marion too, she who revealed little, is that where I'm from?

I am from hoarders and fixers, cooks and lawyers, politicians and artists.

From stinky cheese and poison, and a fog as thick as pea soup.

I am from show tunes, Handel, Pete Seeger. From summer Sundays at the beach, and winter Sundays at the skating rink. From red velvet seats and first position arabesques, and Edward Gorey in his many rings.

I'm from Germany and France and Ireland and England, from weisswurt and springerle, hot cookies and gorgonzola, oysters on the half shell and icy cold Schaefer long-necks, and five pound bags of Bazzini’s pistachios.

From the rules about mayonnaise on the teak, beer croquet in the side yard, the blowing of the big horn and hand-cranked ice cream after a long hot day.

I am from fly rods, bear skin coats, block parties. From black and white snapshots and Kodachrome slides. From sterling silver and hand-me-downs. From hope, pain, love and old age. From oriental rugs and footlockers, station wagons and bicycles, charge cards and index cards, and wicker chairs found on the curb.

And what's after me is from what's before me.



I spotted this poetic exercise in personal history at Amanda's and Flutter's and De's, and finally succumbed. If you want to too, visit the template. Schmutzie's done it too, and is making a link-up. Join in. Come back and tell me where you're from.

18 comments:

mayberry said...

I did this quite a while ago, but where you're from sounds like a lot more fun!

Amanda said...

I so love this exercise. I think it takes us places we wouldn't think to go or share.

Varda said...

I remember when this meme was going around last year. Glad to see it's making another round, thinking I'll try to dip in.

Yours is just lovely. Thank you.

Heide Estes said...

Love yours; I chimed in. Thanks.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I am loving all these--this is one of my favorite things to do with students of all ages.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I was inspired to do this once again . . . http://jugglinglife.typepad.com/juggling_life/2011/07/i-am-from-a-meme-worth-doing.html

De said...

This is a great meme. Now I have to read some from bloggers I don't know, because I'm wondering... As a regular reader, I already know the back story to a lot of these references, but I think it would be just as great if I didn't.

I struggled so much with mine because it was 99.9% negative no matter what I tried. And that's not accurate. Plus it makes me think about what my kids would write someday.

too much thinking.

FreshHell said...

This is great! I love yours. I hadn't seen this before and will definately do it.

Jason, as himself said...

Nicely done! Very interesting childhood.

Kyddryn said...

Neat-o! Cheers for the blog prompt...I am off to go do this, now...

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

susan said...

Cool! You moved me to blog again!

flutter said...

this is beautiful, I knew I liked you

FreshHell said...

Okay, here's mine: http://freshhell.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/i-am-from/

painted maypole said...

i love these. and yours conjurs up very real images... even smells. nice.

purple_kangaroo said...

Beautiful! I'm so glad Liz pointed me here. I really enjoyed doing this meme, too.

Janet said...

Marion, huh? My grandmother had a sister named Marion...who kind of disowned the family...and moved to NY. I wonder...

Unknown said...

love this. have now been imagining what my kids would write off-and-on in my head for days now...

Debbie said...

I love this, especially where you wonder if you are from Marion. There are people I wonder about too. And your last line is really effective.