Post #217 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Matilda Butler
A Charming Look at Your Life and Memoir
I was recently flipping through a Condé Nast Traveler magazine and my eye came to rest on an article called “A Charmed Life.” The graphic was of a bracelet with silver charms in the shape of the state of Alaska, a miniature beer mug (representing Munich), a gondola (for Italy), a hunk of cheese, and other symbols of a lifetime of travels of one family. The writer said:
“As children, my sister and I would study each charm, remembering every trip we took as a family and imaging those our parents took before we were born. This bracelet holds so many memories of adventures past–and now I’m continuing the tradition our parents started with a new bracelet, adding charms from my own family’s travels for my daughter to wear, reminisce about, and add to.” — Stephanie Nicks
I immediately thought about my own charm bracelet. I remembered the summer vacation when we stopped at a jewelry store in a small town in southern Colorado. I started looking at the sterling silver charms in the showcase and my mother joined me. “Would you like to pick some out?”
What an invitation for a grade school child. The clerk brought out the tray and I recall picking out the ones that I liked. I was especially intrigued by those that moved or had movable parts–the bird house with a tiny bird that could be moved back and forth, a chariot with wheels that turned, a quiver with three arrows that could be taken partially out before being dropped back into the holder. Others I also liked–a water pot, a cowboy and a seemingly almost redundant pair of chaps, a sandal, a rocking chair. Mother told me I could pick out seven charms. After much agonizing over my selection, the clerk told my mother that she would give me a eighth one if I would sing a song.
Today, I got out that charm bracelet that has been unworn in my jewelry box for decades and looked at the charms. I was surprised to see the lucky horseshoe where I had expected to find a four leaf clover. I couldn’t figure out the false memory. Then it came to me. The song I sang for the final charm was “I’m looking over a four leaf clover, that I overlooked before. First is the sunshine. The second is rain. Third is the roses that bloom in the lane. There’s no need explaining,
the one remaining is somebody I adore.” That song earned me the lucky horseshoe.
As I reflected on the role of memory, I suddenly remembered all the long summer days in the Oklahoma of my childhood. On those warm afternoons, I loved to sit on the grass with friends and look for four-leaf clovers among the many three-left clovers. We frequently found one or two. I recall taking these treasured ones into my bedroom and pressing them in a book. And it was only while thinking about the lucky four-leaf clovers that I saw why the clerk gave me the lucky horseshoe.
And the bracelet itself? My mother, like many who lived through the depression, was always careful with money. She had an old bracelet from her childhood and told me that the charms could be put on it. That’s the green and silver bracelet that you see in the photo.
Memoir Writing Prompt
1. Do you have a charm bracelet? Get it out and recall the story associated with each one. Choose one or two and write the stories using as many details as you can recall.
2. No charm bracelet? Create an imaginary one. Would the charms represent places you have been? Places where you have lived? Perhaps hobbies you have had? Maybe pets over the years? There are so many different ways to populate a charm bracelet. Create your ideal one and then write the story of your imagined bracelet.
Have fun. Let the memories come forth.
