Ruth, Sue and I attended the annual state-wide Farm
Bureau meeting in Wisconsin Dells yesterday.
I taught two “Write Your Life Story” workshops, and a grand time we
had. In the first session, 72 people, in
the second 63. The room was filled with
memories and stories as people recounted their favorite toys when they were
children, people who made a difference in their lives, and turning points,
where something happened in their lives and everything that followed was
different.
When
I asked about people who made a difference in your life, a woman shared a story
about the school bus driver she had when she was a little girl and attending grade
school. A bully on the bus broke off a
flower the little girl was taking home for her mother. The driver stopped the
bus. In the midst of her tears, the
driver, using the first aid kit in the bus, taped the flower back together, and
assigned the bully to the front seat for the rest of the school year. She has
never forgotten that good deed, now so many years ago.
People
remembered horses on their farms. One person told about how his grandfather
had spent the night in the barn with a sick horse that was dying—for this man a
horse was a part of the family and deserved that kind of respect.
The
room was filled with laughter, and some tears, too, as people remembered their
stories. And also listened as I shared
how important it was to write these stories down and share them with their
families and friends, as this is history, and when we forget our histories, we
forget who we are.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take some time to write down your stories.
December
8, 8:00 p. m. Live on Twin Cities Public
TV. A Farm Winter.
December
13, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Barnes and
Noble, La Crosse. Book Signing.
January
28, 2015 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House.
A Farm Winter.
Purchase
Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose,
Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them): Patterson
Memorial Library
The
library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.
Also
available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old
Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry
Apps a Farm Story). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.
Contact
the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson
Memorial Library
50
Division St.
No comments:
Post a Comment