Post #102 – Women’s Memoir Writing, ScrapMoir – Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
Women’s Memoirs is pleased to present the first of two award-winning stories today. Cathie Borrie is the First Place winner in this month’s memoir contest — IT’S JUNE category. This afternoon, we’ll publish the First Place winner Nancy Julien Kopp in the FATHER’S DAY category. Be sure to check back at 2 pm for Nancy’s story (PDT).
TAKE YOUR MARKS
June.
A clear hot day noisy with shrieks, barking and the cracking pop of a starting gun. My right leg is tied to my mum’s left leg with strips of old fabric, our arms wrapped tightly around each other’s waists. We scuttle over to the edge of the lime-white starting line.
“Take your marks—get set—go!”
We’ve signed up for the three-legged race, signed up for all the races. During morning assembly our headmistress lectures us on the meaning of Sports Day.
“Now just remember, girls, today is all about doing your very best, being good sports and having fun.”
My mum and I want to win.
We’ve been practicing for weeks in my grandparents’ backyard. My mother outlines our race strategy.
“Now remember, the first step is the most important. We have to get into rhythm right from the start, darling, or it will be too late.”
As soon as the pistol fires we trot forward. Mum whispers in my ear, “One-two, one-two, one-two.”
We’re surefooted, in perfect time. The judge points at us, “First!” We each have a blue ribbon pinned on our shirts. Next we line up for the egg and spoon race.
“Cath, you must stay calm. If you get too excited you’ll drop the egg. Don’t look at the ground and don’t pay attention to anyone else around you.”
Another blue ribbon for my mother and me.
I enter every track-and-field race. Left-foot, right-foot, left-foot—jump! Left-foot, right-foot, left-foot—jump! Sometimes I knock a hurdle down and have cuts and scrapes all over my legs. One of the other mothers is horrified.
“Just look at your legs! What a tomboy you are.”
My mother is on the sidelines watching me in all the races.
“That was quite a day, love! I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m not like a boy, am I? Sylvia’s mum says I’m a tomboy.”
“Oh no, you’re perfect the way you are, just perfect. She’s just jealous because she’s got such a boring daughter who never wins anything.”
I get to pick out a free gift at one of the stalls that is set up at the edge of the playing field and I choose a bottle of Pine-Sol because it smells like the woods.
For the rest of my life I choose Pine-Sol because it smells like the woods and reminds me of one sunny June day on a grassy playing field marked with lime-white starting lines where all day long my mother and I won blue ribbons.
Cathie Borrie is the author of The Long Hello: The Other Side of Alzheimer’s. Women’s memoirs published a review of Cathie’s memoir last year. If you’re interested, click here.
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