© irene waters 2014
I turned seven in 1963 and my school year had several momentous occasions. Firstly I fell in love. My teacher that year was one of the only male teachers at the school and I was smitten. I worked a little harder to impress him in my effort to become teacher’s pet. It didn’t work but my school work possibly was better than it otherwise would have been. We also had a total eclipse of the sun in 1963 and we spent a deal of time in preparation for viewing it. We were all taken out into the playground on the day and using our paper with pin holes we viewed it, none of us looking directly at the sun as fear of blindness had been a lesson well learnt. Almost as exciting were the dust storms that year. Red dust covered everything and the days were dulled as the dust almost totally obliterated the sun’s rays.
Bite size memoirs is a new weekly writing event hosted by Lisa Reiter. Like flash fiction only for memoir a new topic will be given each Friday.
http://sharingthestoryblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/bite-size-memoir-no-1-school-at-seven/
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
More on the foal, please, Irene ! [grin]
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You don’t want to know M-R.
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!!
OK.
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Very sad. The only thing in that photo (apart from you) that I remember are my sandals!
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It was sad. The foal only survived for 24 hours at most. It fuelled my desire for a horse though. I don’t remember your sandals.
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You have a good memory! I wonder if I could remember as much!
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Surprisingly I have better memories earlier back. I seem to remember trauma rather than the normal everyday hum drum of school up until high school.
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A lovely perspective on some major events that year – I can’t remember exactly when, I too, made a pinhole camera to look at an eclipse and being terrified of getting it wrong and going blind! I wonder how many of us have forgotten that 😊 The school crush will come up again, I hope, as I already have it on a list of future ideas – For me at least, they were agonising and distorting at the time as well as amusing looking back! Thank you xx
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Glad to participate Lisa. Looking forward to whatever you have on the list. Cheers Irene
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Ahh, I love this photo of you and also you have such a great memory! This bite sized memoir challenge sounds very interesting, I might take a look, thanks for the link Irene! I need some more writing challenges 🙂
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Good practice writing short which I find difficult. Memory is such a funny thing. I have better memory of a couple of younger years which for me were a bit more traumatic. This year was good. I loved my teacher and I can remember little else.
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Yes, actually, that is a good point and I know what you mean. I suppose if one really strong memory sticks out it brings back that moment in time so much clearer, whether good or bad. I’ll have to remember that!!! 🙂
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And unfortunately as youngsters I think it is the traumatic events which stick rather than the good ones. 🙂
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Pingback: School at Seven | Lisa Reiter - Sharing the Story
This is such a charming story and the photo is wonderful. You’ve been captured with a thoughtful look, as if you have a great burden to carry. Though I remember lots of incidents from when I was as young as two, I also have many memories from the age of seven. Some door must open at that age, something that triggers our anticipation of our impending future.
Thank you for the follow on my blog; I’m very honored.
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Memory is an interesting thing. I too have memories from around the two year old age – few and far between but they are there. The difference is that they are traumatic memories and they stuck. The second bite size memoir was about jinks and japes and I couldn’t remember anything of that type from my early years. From seven onwards I think that perhaps you start remembering more events, not just the traumatic. Something I’d like to explore further.
Thank you for the follow. I have enjoyed immensely your site and will see more of you. Cheers Irene
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