margaretkendall Chorlton, community writing, memories

Sweets

Hear this blog post read aloud:

We started with a few minutes to relax, get comfortable in our seats, take some deep breaths and close our eyes. Then with our eyes closed, we thought about the associations sweets have for us, with suggestions to help us to think of: 

  • memories from our own childhood, the tastes and smells of sweets we were given, where we were given them and when
  • sweets that remind us of other people, for example, children in our lives both in the past and the present, our parents, family & friends
  • sweets associated with places we know or places we’ve visited

Then we passed around a selection of old-fashioned sweets from a wonderful sweet shop in Hawes, Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dale, where I’d had the pleasure recently to step back in time to my childhood. Eating some of the sweets and talking (when our mouths weren’t full!), we shared lots of memories, most happy, others not. Read on for the stories some of us have chosen to share with you in this blog post.

Image: The exterior of the "The Old Sweet Shop" in a stone-built old building on the high street. The lettering above the enticing display in the window says "Purveyors of fine confectionery and.." with the word "tobacco" now covered over.
Image: A view of the interior of the sweet shop with rows of jars of sweets on the wooden shelves. on the counter are jars of gob-stoppers in increasing sizes.
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jolenesheehan community writing, lockdown, memories

Routines and rituals

I am fascinated with this topic and spent the whole session grinning as I got to hear about people’s daily and weekly habits, routines and rituals.  I find the way we live our day to day lives riveting, especially during a time where our “normal” routines have been altered so much by external factors.   To me, discussing the patterns we follow can help us understand our own influences, values, way of thinking and lifestyle as well as give a glimpse of what it is really like to live in another’s shoes.

Through the session, lots of themes emerged as well as overlapping habits, people reporting “We have so much in common”.  Maybe you too, the reader will find cheer and comradery in learning about how people spend their days and it will allow you to reflect on the meaning behind your own ‘ordinary’ choices.

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margaretkendall community writing, memories

Our treasured keepsakes

Jolene had asked us to choose an object from our homes to bring with us to the Zoom meeting, maybe something we hadn’t thought about recently, but which had a particular meaning for us. As each of the items was held up to the screen for everyone else to see, we heard fascinating stories behind the chosen objects. They had stirred powerful memories: of our childhoods, of the special people who gave them to us, the people and places we associated with them, the love, the music and the magic in our lives.

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