While cleaning out my closet, I stumbled upon a box my mom left me of old poems and stuff I’ve written over the years. Most of the stuff was from my high school years…articles for the school newspaper, a drawing of a confederate soldier missing a finger, and this little book fairy.
notice the date…March 1968. I was seven years old. I can’t be held responsible. (Funny, I never got any better at drawing).
I found some funny poems, a letter I wrote to a never-was boyfriend…and the following ‘story’ written in May 1967. I was six.
The story was written in crayon and was 3 pages long. I won’t bother posting such said letter in its original form because I’d have to enlarge it for you to read it, so, I’ll do the next best thing. I’ll re-type it exactly as I wrote it. I guess you could say this is my first documented attempt at writing.
The sun was coming up when I herd Daddy go to work. My daddy is in the army. He has to trane other daddies to be like him. My mommy calls him a patriat. I don’t no what that meens but she sed it’s good.
I get to stay home with mommy and make cookies. Daddy’s favrits are choclat chip. Mommy likes suger cookies. I like the same cookies as daddy. I will make xtra cookies to share with daddy.
Making cookies is fun. I got to crak an egg and put in the choclat chips, thin stir them all up with the other stuf mommy made. I wantd to put them in the oven, but mommy sed it was to hot for me.
Wen they were dun, mommy let me eat one. It was good.
I was happy wen daddy came home bcas daddy let me eat more cookies. He gave me milk to dunk my cookies. I luv my daddy.
Thank heavens my spelling and grammar improved over the years, even if my drawing didn’t.
Part of me feels embarrassed by these pieces, but then another part of me beams with pride. Even at the age of 6 and 7, I loved books and writing. The love has stayed with me for more than 40 years.
Mom and Dad, I know you’re up there looking down on me. I just want to say ‘Thank You’ for feeding me the love for books, for listening to my made up stories of far away worlds and silliness. Most of all, thank you for holding on to a piece of my childhood I thought was gone. We all have to start somewhere. My passion for reading and writing started with me being wrapped in the arms of love.
I love you and miss you both.

Awe. That was so cute! I wish I had stuff like that, but even finding a picture of me is pretty hard. Boo Hoo. What a nice memroy.
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I still have “scripts” that I wrote for my Barbies.
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Awwwww…..I wish I had stuff like that from my childhood.
I made sure I let my kids stuff for when they’re older. Lovely post 🙂
xx
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Hey Jenny! We are in the same YA campaign. Yay!!!!
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woot! woot! 🙂
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Hi! I’m stopping in from the campaign and I just wanted to say, what a great post! I also have some of my writing and drawings from when I was around 7 years old. I am sorry to say my drawing never much improved either! Loved your story!
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Aww, thanks, Diane *blush*. What category of the campaign are you in? I mistakenly put myself in the children’s picture books. So not true. I write YA fantasy.
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Oh! I forgot to mention, I’m in your YA Campaign group, too. I can’t wait to get to know you and your work better. 🙂
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Yay! I’m really looking forward to this campaign. I’ve already met some really wonderful people. Go Rachael!
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Your story sounds familiar. While going through the tons of papers my parents had collected over the years, I found some of MY old stories. I don’t have them handy at the moment (I tucked them away with my own clutter!) but I did feel pride, like you, knowing that my Mom & Dad had treasured them enough to hang onto them. I wish they had been able to attend my first book launch, which happened to be the same day as my Dad’s memorial service. Mom had passed three years before that, so I can sympathize with you and feel your pain. I miss my folks, too.
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I’m sure there are a lot of writers with similar stories. I kept most of the artwork and homemade cards my kids made. Someday, they’ll look back on it and hopefully have wonderful memories and feel-good feelings, too.
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That is my wish for my kids too. 🙂
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Aw that’s so wonderful! Loved your story. Even then you struggled onward. Back then spelling was tough. Now it’s crafting characters and plot arcs. 🙂
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Jenny, I love this, what a delightful story! Your ‘Book Fairy’ was drawn on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) – I’ll bet that was your inspiration for the drawing. 🙂 What a wonderful, uplifting post! ~ Julie 🙂
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So sweet. Funny, I just wrote a blog on the past!
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