The notebook: or, weird stuff I wrote as a kid

Cleaning is such a distraction.  Sorting through stuff in preparation for our move, I was reunited with a childhood companion.  We didn’t have a TV when I was a kid, so when I wasn’t picking apples or stacking firewood in the orchard, I was sequestered in my room or perched in the treehouse atop the old crabapple—always with my notebook. 

The notebook is a black 3-ring binder recycled from Grandpa’s workplace.  He was the safety man at an oil refinery, so the binder spine reads “Mea_urement & Control” (the s was missing when I got it).  In a startling display of my future obsession with process management and organization, I added dividers with tabs, folders for loose objects, and a title page:  “Poem and Prose by Mindy Rice.”  Many of the entries are dated; apparently 1986 (I was 11) was my most prolific year.

Contents include:

Poems: “Grandmothers are Special,” “Father’s Dedication Poem,” Thanksgiving is…,” “Glaciers,” and “Mary Had a Baby Boy”

Prose paragraphs, with the headlines: “The Rainbow,” “Evening,” “Comparisons,” and “Snowfall”

Uncompleted novels, including: “Megan”; an untitled manuscript with four chapters about western pioneers; and “Tarzana” (Plot: missionary kids get lost in a Tanzanian jungle and have to work together to survive—hey, I invented Survivor!  My files include maps and detailed profiles of all the main characters.)

Stage plays, including: “The Problem with the Earthlings” and “Queen Esther” (Both were publicly performed in full costume, with neighborhood and church casts, respectively.)

Short stories:  “Escape”; “Bunnilittle’s Broken Leg”; “Julie, the Runaway”; “I am Worth but Applesauce”; “Detective Mickey and the Great Teddy Bear Mix-up”; “Star of Wonder”; “Kimberly Christianson and the Mystery of the Ghostly Woman” and “Megan and the Case of the Town Hall Clock” (both no doubt inspired by Nancy Drew); and the two self-illustrated greats of family lore: “Animals of the Zoo” and “Farm Animals.” (All-time famous paragraph from “Farm Animals”:  “This is a pig.  Farmers kill the pigs for meat.  The pig eats slop.  That’s stuff like banana peels or yuck mixed with juice.”  I was 7, so cut me some slack.)

For Mike V., I admit that inside the front cover of the notebook is a post-it from an unidentified year, containing the following list:
1.  Of a Golden Sunset [ms. no longer extant]
2.  Re-write Megan
3. Josie Braxton [ms. no longer extant]
4.  Re-write The Christmas Stall [which I believe was a Christmas gift for my parents, so perhaps they still have a copy somewhere]
As all four items remain uncrossed-off, I obviously never completed the tasks.  (I’m going to have to get back to them, or it might drive me nuts now.)

Also tucked inside the notebook is a typewritten story called “Mindy” that an elderly neighbor lady wrote for her correspondence creative writing class.  The gist of it is Mindy is such a good girl with braces who loves her cat Misty, despite the furry, mangled “presents” left on the back porch.

Ah, the curious things you find when sorting through boxes!

13. December 2006 by Mindy
Categories: My writing | 8 comments

Comments (8)