You can take a gallop back in time, to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and discover how you participated in and contributed to the events and trends of those times. Yes, if you were 7 or 77, what you did, thought, felt, and witnessed mattered – to history! Anchor your memoir in time with historical context, adding depth and color to help your future readers understand “where you’re coming from.”

In my book Making History I’ve divided history up into categories that make it easy to explore. The categories are:

Economics & Politics (money and power colors everything)
The Social Fabric (race, gender, morality – so much has changed)
International Scene (we’re all in this together)
Technology & Science (remember BEFORE the internet?)
Crimes & Disasters (bad stuff can make good stories) Arts & Entertainment (what do you sing in the shower?)
Lifestyles (Food, Fashion, Sports & Games, etc.)
The Weird and Trivial (language changes, Scandals, Pets & Animals, the Paranormal, etc)

If you don’t want to read the whole book (which has a lot of good stuff in it, like stories and a simple and fun 5-step system for writing memoirs, plus other goodies), you can buy e-book downloads here with extensive detailed timelines (from 1930 thru 1989) in each category, plus lists of penetrating questions and suggested topics to get you thinking and remembering. Click here to get e-book downloads.

Explore the many, many stories of our fascinating pasts – and how we ALL make up history.

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My teleclass, “Playing Your Part on the World Stage”, which is based on my book “Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life,” explores how each of us contributes to “big” history. (By the way, I’ll be teaching this 6-week teleclass series again this spring, starting March 18th, through www.namw.org.) I love teaching this class because I hear such great stories, and they spark memories of my own. Here is a story about the space program from the 1950s to the 1980s:

The Space program continued into the seventies and eighties, with significant achievements such as the first space station Skylab, stunning photos of possible life on Mars and the rings of Saturn, and many more, ensuring that humans would continue looking into the skies. Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut and a heroine to many American girls and women.

One of my students, “Victoria,” had dreamed of being an astronaut in the mid-1950s, when she was a teenager. But girls didn’t become astronauts then, and Victoria became a teacher instead. She forgot her adolescent fantasy until one evening in 1983 as she was watching a TV program about Sally Ride with her granddaughter. “I want to go to Space, Grandma,” said her granddaughter, giving Victoria a bittersweet thrill as she realized that what had been impossible for her had become possible for her granddaughter.

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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My teleclass, “Playing Your Part on the World Stage”, which is based on my book “Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life,” explores how each of us contributes to “big” history. (By the way, I’ll be teaching this 6-week teleclass series again this spring, starting March 18th, through www.namw.org.) I love teaching this class because I hear such great stories, and they spark memories of my own. Here is a story that I shared with the class, about the changes in women’s roles in the 1970s:

In 1974, armed with my college degree, I entered the full time workforce. I had worked part time through college as a secretary, and I looked forward to working in a different role. However, the only jobs I was considered for were secretarial jobs. Most, in fact nearly all, of the jobs available for women in business were secretarial jobs.

It was legal to advertise jobs in the want ads as “Men Wanted” and “Women Wanted.” I answered the “Women” ads for office help, naively hoping that I could use a secretarial job as a springboard to something better. I was offered quite a few secretarial jobs, but when I asked about paths to advancement, the only thing on offer was as an Office Manager or Head Typist. Although young men with the same education as I were considered for management trainees and entry level sales positions, I was told – in these exact words — that women couldn’t manage because their employees wouldn’t take them seriously, and that women couldn’t be sales people because their customers wouldn’t take them seriously.

Eventually I landed a job as a Secretary/Purchasing Agent. That slash was why I agreed to take the job. The company was a furniture manufacturer and it was my job to purchase nails and screws and other small production items. My supervisor bought “bigger” things such as lumber, bedsprings, and mattress ticking. I thought that this was temporary, just until I learned. Then I would be the Buyer for the “bigger” purchases. But when I asked when I would be given that responsibility, I was told — never. I couldn’t buy these products because the purchase of lumber and such was really a man’s job and the suppliers wouldn’t take me seriously.

This was actually true. I learned this the first time my hardware vendor, selling nails and screws, came to see me. He knew my name but had not talked to me. Since Kim is a man’s name as well as a woman’s, he expected a man. He saw me and his mouth fell open in shock. “You’re a girl!” he huffed. “I’m not selling nails to a girl!” Out he stomped. I never saw him again. I had to find another nail and screw vendor, which should have been easy but wasn’t, because I wanted one who wasn’t patronizing.

I was in that job five years, and although by the second year I devoted myself to purchasing and performed no secretarial duties, it wasn’t until the last year of my employment that my company at last yielded to my pleas to drop the “secretary” from my title and promote me to Purchasing Agent without the slash.

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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Last fall I taught a teleclass series called “Playing Your Part on the World Stage”, which was sponsored by the National Association of Memoir Writers (www.namw.org.) The class is based on my book “Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life,” and explores how each of us contributes to “big” history. (By the way, I’ll be teaching this 6-week teleclass series again this spring, starting March 18th, again through NAMW.) I love teaching this class because I hear such great stories, and they spark memories of my own. Here’s another story about the changes in medical science:

My daughter is sensitive to numerous foods, including milk. It took years for doctors to allow that this was possible – because of the bias toward “normal” being people of Northern European descent, who have a gene that allows them to digest milk and milk products.

I too have this handy gene, inherited from my British/Swedish mother. So I can drink milk, no problem. But the paternal half of me is part Native American, and most Native Americans don’t have this gene, and neither does my daughter.

I can’t tell you how many pediatricians scoffed at me years ago when I said milk seemed to make her sick. Children need milk in order to have strong bones and teeth! A medical fact! Don’t question. Don’t make unscientific observations. You are just a mother, not a doctor.

Because of various factors, including the powerful Dairy Industry, it’s only recently that medical science has finally admitted that not everyone can drink milk!

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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Last fall I taught a teleclass series called “Playing Your Part on the World Stage”, which was sponsored by the National Association of Memoir Writers (www.namw.org.) The class is based on my book “Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life,” and explores how each of us contributes to “big” history. (By the way, I’ll be teaching this 6-week teleclass series again this spring, starting March 18th, again through NAMW.) I love teaching this class because I hear such great stories, and they spark memories of my own. Here’s one:

We discussed scientific and technological advances, and I remembered my first experience with medical science, when I had my tonsils taken out at the age of four. At the risk of sharing just how darned old I am, the anesthetic they used at the time was ether. I remember being wheeled down the hospital hallway and then the ether cone being lowered over my nose and mouth. My arms were strapped down so I couldn’t stop it. It was terrifying, and the smell was nauseating. I opened my mouth to scream, and then everything went fuzzy.

When I think of this now, I wonder how my parents could take such a huge chance with their only child (my brother wasn’t around yet.) But then I realize that they didn’t know how dangerous ether was – in fact to them they accepted it as a miracle of modern science.

I guess miracles are dependent on their time.

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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I think it’s interesting, although not always fun, to examine the unexpected “bad stuff” that happens in every life. Exposure to crime and experience of disaster both call forth deep and lasting emotional responses. They contribute to our sense of safety in the world. Both may show human nature at its very worst or at its very best. Criminals commit acts which run counter to decency and virtue, but those who fight crime often are motivated by a love of justice. In the midst of disaster people may show courage, selflessness, generosity, kindness and compassion – and they may also show greed, callousness and selfish opportunism. We can be sure that our lives will include some “bad stuff,” but the lasting effects are often due to our responses more than the events themselves.

Here are some questions about crime that you might want to explore. What is your experience with the criminal justice system? Did you know any criminals personally? Describe them: did he or she “look” like a criminal? Were their crimes the result of bad luck or poor judgment? What drove them to commit a crime? Were you ever a victim of a crime? Were you ever a witness to a crime? Did you testify at a trial? Did your work involve you in the justice system – were or are you a lawyer, a judge, a bailiff, a cop, a legal secretary, a social worker, child welfare case worker, court reporter? How did your work change, augment or improve the American criminal justice system? Did your opinion of the justice system change over time? Did you become disillusioned, cynical, bitter? Or more determined, more idealistic, more passionate? How do you think the justice system protects the American people? How can it be improved?

Or if your experience with crime and criminals is limited, how about exploring your experiences with the myriad of disasters that can occur? Almost everyone has an experience of a disaster – a fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, shipwreck, train collision, car crash, explosion, etc. And everyone has a story too. Tell the story of your brush with disaster. Write about the heroism you saw — the kindness, courage, generosity, tenacity of people coping with disaster. Or write about the greed and selfishness you saw, if that was your experience. How did your disaster experience change you? How did it change your perception of others? What did you do after the disaster that you hoped would keep you safe from another one? Did you move away? Did you campaign for better safeguards?

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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In the 1950s some discoveries challenged our long-held concepts of who we are, where we came from, how we got here, and how long humans have been humans. DNA molecules were first isolated and photographed in 1953, giving us new insights into what made us human. In 1955 Louis Leakey found the then-oldest human skull at Olduvai Gorge in Kenya, showing that humans had been around longer than previously suspected. Radiocarbon dating techniques developed during the 1950s allowed us to know how long the earth had been in existence. The Big Bang theory of creation, first proposed in 1952, gave us a new idea on how the universe itself may have come to be.

Perhaps these discoveries of the 1950s led to the unrest and challenging nature of the 1960s. It is unsettling to set aside long-held and beloved beliefs, in favor of the new and unknown. Some people embrace the new and untried, and others cling more stubbornly to the old and familiar. If you were around in the 1950s, what did you think? If you weren’t around then, what did your parents or grandparents think of these new insights?

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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“Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” ran one of television’s hottest ads in the seventies. The car is a symbol of American life. One of the most popular cars ever was introduced in the sixties: the Ford Mustang. Also increasingly popular in the sixties and seventies were foreign cars, such as the Volkswagen Beetle and the Volkswagen bus, which, with tie-dye curtains in the windows and psychedelic paint along the sides, became a symbol for the hippies of that era.

One of the first cars my husband and I bought after we were married in 1970 was an old VW bus. We called it ‘the Slug’ because it couldn’t go much faster than 20 if you went up a hill, even a mild incline, and on the freeway if you pushed it past 50 it started making this weird guttural whine. But it was great for camping and weekend jaunts. I made tie-dye curtains for the windows and a matching bedspread for the lumpy mattress. Once we even let a friend stay in our bus for a month, and he got along just fine, except after he left we found dozens of beer bottles and hundreds of roaches stashed under the seats.

We drove the Slug for five years, all over the country, until one day it finally just up and died. The day before we sold it to the junk yard we gave a “Slug Wake” for all our friends to pay their last respects, which turned out to be one of the best parties I ever gave.

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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During my teleclass “Playing Your Part on the World Stage” we had a fun discussion about the first time we ever voted. I shared my story – the first time I voted I was 8 ¾ months pregnant and I the main thing I remember about the experience was how afraid I was that I wouldn’t fit into the voting booth. So much for patriotic fervor! Another woman wrote about how it was very foggy the night she went to cast her first vote. She drove round and round in the fog, trying to find the polling place, and while she drove she went round and round in her mind about who she was going to vote for. She couldn’t make up her mind who was the “right” candidate. Turns out she got so confused — both about finding the polling place and who to vote for – that she just went home instead. What I got out of the stories that were shared was that when we were young we were motivated to find the “right” person and the “right” way, and even the “right” place, because we were too young to know that no such “right” things actually existed. The truth is far more complex than our simplistic political notions. But even though I know this now, now that I am no longer young, I still vote, and I still try to find the “right” candidate. This reflects a central paradox that we all have to face: we must continue to search for absolute perfection even though we know there is no such thing.

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.

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One of the participants in my current teleclass “Playing Your Part on the World Stage” shared an interesting piece she wrote about stubble – you know, those sneaky little hairs that pop up on a man’s face right around 5 o’clock – and American leaders. Focusing a serious essay around a funny detail like stubble is a great way to grab your readers. Reading her story made me think about the effects of physical looks on our opinions, and how sometimes they can be accurate indicators, and other times not so much. Which comes first, the shadow on the face or the shadow on the soul? Or maybe there is no relationship between character and looks at all, until we give it one, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. I connected to this story because I had an almost physical loathing for Richard Nixon, who was famous for his stubble. Although I never saw him in person, only on TV and in photographs, he gave me the same shrinking “ick” feeling that seeing photos of snakes does. And I’m sure that much of that feeling had its basis in what he looked like, how he moved, his gestures, his voice – all physical attributes that he could not be held accountable for – they were not his “fault.” I don’t like to admit this, but I was guilty of prejudice – I prejudged him long before Watergate.

This piece also set me wondering – what is the female equivalent to 5 o’clock shadow?

If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook .

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