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Family potluck: reminiscing and recipes
If you're not sure who is the keeper of your family's favorite recipes, take advantage of your next holiday gathering to start preserving your food heritage.
Thanksgiving—or Passover, Christmas, or other holidays where extended family gathers in one place—is an optimal time to collect stories and memories via oral history interviews. There needn’t be a lot of pressure: Simply turn on your smart phone’s voice recorder or set up a video camera on a tripod, then forget it’s there...and let the reminiscing begin.
Ask family members about their favorite food memories and record these tasty bits of family history in a heritage cookbook—or simply stash them in a recipe box.
Collecting family recipes is one of those things that’s on many of our “I want to do someday” lists but that can easily slip through the cracks. It always seems like there will be time. But instead of saying “next time,” make it a priority—as well as an enjoyable endeavor!
Invite family members over for brunch one Sunday with the dual intention of visiting and connecting AND sharing recipes. Consider making it a pot-luck get-together and asking each person to bring at least one of their favorite recipes—maybe from childhood, or maybe one that’s part of their current immediate family’s repertoire (we’re always making new traditions, right?!).
This doesn’t have to be an anxiety-inducing project. Follow the few tips below and remember: You’re collecting your family’s food heritage, so you can do so whatever way makes sense for YOU! (Just, well, do it.)
A few tips for getting your family involved in preserving your food heritage:
Make one person (you?) the point person, organizing the day and ensuring that recordings get transcribed and backed up digitally.
Distribute recipe cards to everyone and ask that they handwrite one of their favorite recipes on the front with accompanying memories on the back.
Use the recipe cards as a jumping-off point for telling longer stories that, when joined together, bring your family history to life.
Designate one or two people as photographers. You may want to collect photographs of the dishes once they’re cooked to accompany the recipes (those can be brought the day of your get-together or collected later), but don’t forget to take pictures of the family interacting around the table or in your home. Food brings people together, after all.
Consider collecting all the recipes and food memories along with a special collection of photos old and new into a heritage cookbook that you can gift to loved ones next year. (Go the DIY route or reach out to us for professional assistance.)
I wonder: What dish will you bring to this family reminiscence potluck?
Limited-time SALE on food heritage gift set!
Through the end of November 2021, input code GRATITUDE at checkout for 25% off our Taste of the Past recipe & memory card set (they make a great holiday host gift, too!).
Read more Food Memories blog posts:
Explore more blog posts in these categories:
Life Story Links: November 2, 2021
This biweekly curated reading list includes insights into recent celeb memoirs plus helpful tools & resources for anyone who wants to preserve their stories.
“No harm is done to history by making it something someone would want to read.”
—David McCullough
Vintage news photo of woman suffrage headquarters on Upper Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, circa 1912, with editor’s marking of “A,” “B,” and “C” as a guide for identifying key figures: A, Miss Belle Sherwin, president, National League of Women Voters; B, Judge Florence E. Allen (holding the flag); and C, Mrs. Malcolm McBride. Photographed by Harris & Ewing and International (New York), courtesy Library of Congress.
The Weight of Our Words
NARRATIVES OF TRAUMA
“Hearing survivors’ stories is absolutely healing for other survivors,” Amita Swadhin, founder of a nonprofit dedicated to sharing the stories of LGBTQIA+ Black, indigenous people, and people of color who have survived child sexual abuse.
HISTORY IS NOT FIXED
There is no definitive history, and we as oral historians and storytellers have a responsibility to preserve the truth amidst biases and shifting perspectives, opines family archivist Amanda Lacson.
REAL FAMILY STORIES, FICTIONALIZED
When famed novelist John Updike wrote a short story about her father—using many aspects lifted directly from real life alongside one that was decidedly not—poet Molly Fisk was forced to confront the secret truths that lie in fiction.
Preserving Family Legacies
FOOD AND FAMILY
Get the whole family involved in saving stories and favorite holiday recipes with these three easy and fun Thanksgiving memory-keeping ideas.
FOR THE DESCENDANTS
"Every personal history has its own unique set of circumstances that make it valuable even if it's just to your family," historian Dustin Galer said.
REVISITING ARTIFACTS
“The visceral experience of touching those photos and memorabilia made my personal history so tangible.” When a writer begins cleaning through all the stuff in her basement, “buried treasures emerge.”
Holocaust Testimony & War History
PASSING FROM LIVING MEMORY
“There are so few people alive who are actually part of this,” Daniel Mendelsohn said. “[The Holocaust] is in danger of becoming abstracted. It’s in danger of losing the fine-grained human reality, the little things people remember, and that, to me, is very anguishing.”
“THERE IS NO OPPOSING VIEW”
“I have nothing to say to the principal from Texas who thinks we need to have books with opposing views of the Holocaust,” Ilana Wiles writes in this thoughtful piece. “I hope that being vocal and telling our story, instead of keeping it hidden or shrouded in secrecy, will help our family continue to heal.”
PERSONAL STORIES REVEAL WWII HISTORY
The Imperial War Museum in London has unveiled new exhibitions entirely dedicated to the Second World War, including personal stories from 100 individuals from more than 30 countries:
Public Personalities, Private Stories
“ALL ABOUT MY SISTERS”
“Over a period of seven years, Wang [Qiong] filmed her parents, siblings and relatives from within the emotional thicket of their lives, capturing moments of piercing, private intimacy.” Filmmaker traces the tragic effects of China’s one-child policy on her family.
MYSTERY SOLVED
“Our archives contain multitudes. They open us to a world that helped to frame our own lives, though it can often feel inaccessibly distant. It’s always there, just waiting to be found, and to give up its closely-held secrets to those willing to look.” On recovering the history of actor David Duchovny’s grandfather, a Yiddish writer.
BUSTING INTO THE BOYS’ CLUB
Katie Couric’s new memoir, Going There, “might as well be subtitled ‘Owning This,’ starting with rattlesome family skeletons: subdued Judaism on one side, ‘blighted with racists’ on the other,” writes a reviewer.
RECONSIDERING THE MAN
“There’s a paradoxical pain built into reading a biography of someone we thought we knew well: In getting to know him better, he somehow morphs into a stranger.” How two new additions to the Anthony Bourdain canon contribute to his legacy.
“BERNSTEIN’S WALL”
“In a series of archival interviews that anchor the 105-minute film and provide its narration, [Leonard] Bernstein—who died in 1990 at age 72—muses on the role of the artist in society and the power of music to transform hearts and minds.”
...and a Few More Links
Memoirist Joyce Maynard announces winners of her 2021 personal narrative essay contest.
Penn Libraries acquires the personal papers of historian and activist Elizabeth Fee.
This four-week course in November is geared to help you write your memoir.
“I would have to revise the final manuscript of my life.”
Short Takes
3 awesome (and easy!) Thanksgiving memory-keeping ideas
Get the whole family involved in saving stories and favorite holiday recipes with these three easy and fun Thanksgiving memory-keeping ideas.
My fingers are crossed that you are able to gather with your loved ones this year in person to celebrate Thanksgiving—to honor your family traditions and find fellowship around the table.
If you would like to use the opportunity to share stories and begin preserving some of your delicious family history, here are three simple Thanksgiving memory-keeping ideas, complete with ways to make them manageable and fun.
Thanksgiving activities that help you preserve bits of your family history
1 - Start a recipe preservation project.
In addition to writing down your family recipes, snap a few photos of a family member cooking the food, of the ingredients (especially unique or hard-to-find ones), and of the finished dish; whether or not you eventually put them into a family cookbook, your family photo archive will be more complete.
Notice I said “start.” Too often we let things we really want to do fall by the wayside because they seem overwhelming. Don't think about creating a heritage cookbook or worry about getting every single recipe your family has ever cooked! Instead, try one of these approaches to put your family on the path to preserving your best recipes:
Why not write down recipes for every dish at this year's Thanksgiving meal? Take a few pictures of prepping the dishes, what they look like when they are finished, and a few of the family around the table enjoying them? When the time eventually comes for you to make a recipe book, you'll have wonderful photos at the ready. And because you are beginning with a finite number of recipes—those for this year's menu only—your task is manageable enough to take on without worry
Make your recipe gathering a group endeavor. Send a blank recipe card (or a digital template for them to print) to every member of your family and ask them to record the recipe for their favorite Thanksgiving dish or meal. Important: Tell them where to return it, and provide a deadline (trust me, you'll never get them back otherwise).
Consider upping the ante and asking not just for a recipe, but for your loved ones to also write up a favorite story associated with that food. It's not just the provenance (that this was Aunt Betty's stuffing, for example) that make a passed-down recipe special, after all—it's the memories and traditions associated with it.
2 - Make a gratitude jar.
A handmade gratitude jar is easy to make and even easier to incorporate into your Thanksgiving festivities—I bet it will become a new tradition.
This one is so easy and it's sure to become your newest Thanksgiving tradition. It can be as basic as handing out pens and small pieces of paper to your guests, asking them to write one specific thing they are grateful for (as well as their name and the date), then storing them all in a mason jar until next year. There are so many ways to soup this one up.
Consider having each participant read theirs aloud, sharing a bit of a story with all those gathered before dropping their paper into the jar.
If your family does this annually, pull out random slips from previous years and share what was recorded—while this is sure to be touching, hopefully it will also prompt even more story sharing and reminiscing together as a family.
Maybe you want to set out construction paper, markers, ribbon, and glue and ask the kids to decorate the jar.
Why not find some autumn-themed paper to record your thanks?
Consider preserving everyone's notes of gratitude as a section in your annual family photo book.
3 - Revisit Thanksgivings past.
Thanksgiving is a great time to interview family members about food heritage, holiday traditions, and favorite childhood memories.
Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity to interview your mom, dad, or another family elder about their holiday memories, as it's usually a time when generations gather together in one place—and nothing sparks visceral recollections like the smells and flavors of childhood foods!
Like with the recipe preservation project above, it's super-important that you don't get caught up in the idea that this is too big a task to take on. I promise this is something you can do even if your shopping list is long and you plan on getting up at the crack of dawn to get that 15-pound turkey in the oven! A few ways to make a family history project like this practical:
Is there a younger family member or non-chef in the family who might want to take the reins? Ask them to be the ringleader, bringing a list of interview questions designed to elicit Thanksgiving memories; setting up the voice recorder on their phone; and generally ensuring that everyone gets to participate.
If you've got a large clan and the football game's on, too, consider setting up a quiet area especially for brief interviews to happen and be recorded without interruption.
A fun—and efficient!—idea: Designate pairs of people who can interview one another, so you are not burdening one person to handle all the logistics. Two siblings, for instance, may be able to jog one another's memories of shared experiences; and a grandmother might have fun sitting with a grandchild to talk about how times were different “back then.”
Remember, any memory-keeping project you begin this Thanksgiving does not need to be finished by the next morning’s turkey trot. But if you don't start somewhere, your cherished recipes and stories won’t get recorded at all…so hop to it!
Resources to make your Thanksgiving memory-keeping easier
A Taste of the Past: Recipe card set that capture recipes and memories
Free guide: 55 Questions to Spark Thanksgiving Story Sharing
Gift idea: 8 weeks of writing prompts specifically designed to capture food memories
If you'd like to talk about working together to preserve your recipes, stories, and family history in an heirloom book, reach out any time to set up a free half-hour consultation.
Free Printable Thanksgiving Guide
Download this handy e-book with 55 family history questions perfect for Thanksgiving day!
Great gift idea!
Invite a beloved family member to share their stories via inspirational prompts specifically designed to capture food memories—just $15 for 8 weeks of writing prompts!
Life Story Links: October 18, 2021
A curated collection of recent stories about the power of telling our stories, recent memoir reviews, and how things can be imbued with special memories.
“Memoirs are the backstairs of history.”
—George Meredith
Children at a Halloween party in Osage Farms, Missouri, October 1939. Photograph by Arthur Rothstein, courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
In the Books
MEMOIRS IN PIECES
Reading works by others to inspire our own writing is a humbling and essential practice. Last week I reviewed three books that use shorter vignettes to create a compelling portrait of the writers—I hope they inspire YOU!
TUCCI TIME
Actor and memoirist Stanley Tucci “traces his love of food to his family. His mother, an excellent cook, would send him to school with sandwiches made from the previous night’s eggplant parmigiana, while he jealously eyed his friends’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” Read an excerpt here.
SHOWBIZ LIVES OF YORE
Hollywood veterans Ron and Clint Howard were inspired to co-author their new memoir, The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, when they were going through old family photos while preparing for their father’s memorial service:
Artifacts from the Past
HANDKNIT HEIRLOOM, STITCHED WITH LOVE
“‘You know what's in here?’ I blurted out to the shipping clerk—even though I could see he was busy and cranky and probably aching for his shift to be over. ‘I'm sending a family heirloom to my grandson in Europe. It’s my mother’s handknit sweater so he can give it to his child, my first great-grandchild!’”
THE LEGACY WE LEAVE
“We have all heard the saying, ‘success leaves clues.’ Speak of your successes and failures as a means of providing perspective to those who will ride on their ancestor’s coattails in the century ahead.” On leaving not just a financial legacy, but a legacy of meaning.
THAT OLD-SCHOOL VOICEMAIL
“I have an archive of everlasting audio that allows me to experience whatever memory I want, as many times as I want to. My loved ones’ voices will always be with me. Ready to be tapped on. Ready to make certain that I am never alone.” How her phone’s most annoying feature saved her life.
Transformative Words & Memories
“THE POWER OF BOOKS TO CHANGE LIVES”
“For me, telling and writing my story over and over was a part of healing,” memoirist Mondiant Dogon says of revealing his stories during two- or three-hour interview sessions with his cowriter Jenna Krajeski.
JOURNALING FOR ANXIETY
“When people use writing to express themselves, Dr. Wright said, they ‘increase emotional regulation, clarify life goals, find meaning, and give voice to feelings, which can help construct a meaningful story.’”
“HE DIED AMONG HIS MEMORIES”
“In one email he reminded us of what his grandmother whispered every time she kissed him goodbye: ‘Sciaddu miu’—Sicilian for ‘my breath.’’ Gina Rae La Cerva revisits her grandfather’s recipes along with her Sicilian heritage.
THE ETHICS OF ARTISTIC APPROPRIATION
“[With] a growing interest, in some publishing circles, in ‘own voices’ and ‘lived experience’…a premium is placed on authors’ personal familiarity with the worlds they summon. There’s a corresponding sense that the person who inhabited a story in real life should get the first crack at fictionalizing it.” If you’ve followed the controversy surrounding the “Bad Art Friend,” then this is a rather arresting read.
...and a Few More Links
The 10 best biographies of 2021 according to Barnes & Noble
How on earth do you distill an entire life in one single photo book?
Man works to preserve photos his father shot of Pakistan’s people in the era of the country’s founding
Virtual book talk: “How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish”
An excerpt of In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale.
Short Takes
Three writers use vignettes to craft moving memoirs
Memoirs by Sarah Manguso, Beth Ann Fennelly, and Beth Kephart each weave together short narratives to create evocative, textured self-portraits of the writers.
I have written often about using vignettes to tell the stories of your life, and I feel strongly that reading works by others to inspire your own writing is a humbling and essential practice. The three books that follow have one big thing in common: The writers weave together fragments—called alternatively essays, micro-memoirs, and meditations—to create a multi-faceted self-portrait. I recommend reading each of these to get a sense of just how powerful and evocative it can be to craft your memoir…vignette by vignette.
memoir in vignettes no. 1
Ongoingness: The End of a Diary
Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso (Graywolf Press, 2015) is a series of meditations on the author’s compulsion to keep a continuous diary. She writes early in the book, “From the beginning, I knew the diary wasn’t working, but I couldn’t stop writing. I couldn’t think of any other way to avoid getting lost in time.”
Manguso recalls a time in childhood when she didn’t yet need a diary because “I wasn’t yet aware of how much I was forgetting.” That’s at the heart of it here—the fear of losing memories, of losing pieces of oneself. So she records, she memorializes, and she fights the forgetting…until she has a child of her own, that is. And in Ongoingness, she explores the “welcome amnesia,” as the book jacket calls it, of the next chapter of her life.
Some of Manguso’s insights and observations are elliptical in nature: She circles back to them once and again, each time drawing more or new or different meaning from the same experience. Her prose is crystalline. Her insights are resonant.
Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso is a fine example of:
how everyday moments deserve primacy in our writing
how paying attention to details—select, apropos details—can elevate the personal to the universal
how memory is malleable and often elusive—and how, even then, we can mine truth from it in our writing
how “brief” does not mean “lacking”
memoir in vignettes no. 2
Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs
Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly (W.W. Norton & Co., 2017) is another sleek volume that brings the writer to life through what she calls “micro-memoirs” and what I would refer to as “vignettes.”
Don't be fooled: The autobiographical vignettes in Heating & Cooling were not randomly gathered from the author's journals; rather, they were thoughtfully woven together. There is a fine balance between entries that delve into deep waters and ones that skim lightly along the surface. There is a rhythm not only to the words, but to the pieces themselves (which range in length from a single sentence to six pages). There is a layering of themes and a range of moods, a sense of both evocative poetry and direct truth-telling.
Consider reading this book twice: Once, read a vignette or two every night (Ann Patchett calls each entry a “perfect pearl of memory,” and indeed they are worthy of relishing morsel by morsel); then, binge-read the book in one sitting (it's just over a hundred pages, after all, and I promise you the layered themes I mentioned will be all the more apparent to you this way).
Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly is a great example of:
making every word count (Daniel Wallace said, “Every sentence in this book could be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in case future readers want to know what a great sentence looks like.)
how to use humor effectively in your memoir writing
how to curate and compile telling moments from a life to reveal broader themes—and delight the reader
how to be wonderfully vulnerable and alive in your writing
how to construct a book of vignettes that build upon one another and all together draw a richly textured portrait of the writer
memoir in vignettes no. 3
Wife | Daughter | Self: A Memoir in Essays
Ah, perhaps my favorite of the bunch here, Beth Kephart's latest memoir, Wife | Daughter | Self (Forest Avenue Press, 2021) is a book to be savored. And for those of us who open to the first page with the intent of inspiring our own writing, how lucky we are that Kephart has included notes on how she created it in a thoughtful postscript. To wit:
"I write parts whose purpose is to find their way into an implicating whole, the choreography of the thing being the thing, the adjacencies and half sums. The rain that won't come answered, pages later, by the rain that will. The dead communicating with the living.”
Or:
"…the aggregation of parts that constitute this memoir reflect my belief that truth is not continuous, that stories live in the seams, that we remember in bursts and find wisdom in the juxtaposed…”
Kephart is a perpetual seeker of truth—of her truth, of the universal truth; she is on a quest for meaning, and it is through writing that she is most often able to find it. Does she find herself, though—the "self" in the title of this memoir? Do we as readers find her?
We glimpse her, we feel her, we intuit and recognize and yearn for her in the push and pull of her words. We find her in the seams (oh, how I love this notion: that “stories live in the seams,” as Kephart writes and teaches and ultimately manifests in this memoir). We are left to find traces of her and to piece together a fragmented whole ourselves—a whole I envision as a mobile made of shimmering stained-glass mosaics, blowing in the wind, simultaneously reflecting and catching the sun. We know her, even if perhaps we can't summarize who she is in words.
"If you asked about my process, I'd say music,” Kephart writes in the addendum. And there it is: While we are caught up in the music of her life, of her writing, then her craftsmanship—her cognizance of form and her attention to weaving fragments together so they convey more than the sum of their parts—all of that is invisible to us as readers. Beautifully, conspicuously invisible.
Wife | Daughter | Self: A Memoir in Essays by Beth Kephart is a stellar example of:
how to orchestrate a symphony from otherwise disjointed notes
how to carefully choose and weave details so that they become "telling details"
how to write towards truth, allowing the journey of writing to become part of the story; as Kephart says, “the truth is in the trying”
how “writing the same story twice is to puzzle out dimensions”
how considering yourself in relation to others—"Father's daughter. Husband's wife. Son's mother."—can be a gateway to finding oneself, period.
Download Free Writing Prompts Guide
Get all our life story vignette writing prompts in one easy-to-read printable guide!
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Life Story Links: October 5, 2021
This week’s roundup includes the best in first-person storytelling, the scoop on new memoirs, explorations of how memory works, & plenty of family history fun.
“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”
—Joseph Pulitzer
Vintage photo of kids playing football, October 1947, by Wallace Kirkland for LIFE magazine; © Time.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage
VIVAN LOS VOCES
in collaboration with StoryCorps, AARP has launched “Vivan Las Voces” (Long Live the Voices), a national audio story collection project dedicated to capturing the diverse stories and experiences of the U.S. Latino community. Head to StoryCorps Connect to record your conversation, and tag it #VivanLosVoces to become part of the permanent collection.
KICKOFF STORYTELLING EVENT OCT. 25
The Power of YOUR Stories—Hispanic Heritage Celebration is a free online event on Monday, October 25, 2021 at 12pm ET. Panelists will weave stories connected to caregiving, food, family, and more, and hope to inspire folks at home to record their own stories.
TAKING IT TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Latino individuals “from San Francisco to Seattle to Miami are reflecting on their family’s history and contributions in celebratory social media posts highlighting their relatives' and ancestors' work and journeys.”
Meet the Storytellers
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN STORYTELLERS
“I’m always surprised. I still can’t believe that I gave birth to you. And I feel the same way about the stories.” Writer Meg Wolitzer interviews her mother, Hilma, also a writer, for the first time.
“TAKING BACK MY OWN HISTORY”
“Betty has an amazing ability to share her own story in a really personal and vulnerable way—not so people know more about her, but so they understand that they too have a story. We all have a history—and it’s just as important as the history we learn in school.” Meet the fabulous, 100-year-old park ranger Betty Reid Soskin.
GRATITUDE, ALWAYS
For years I’ve shied away from sharing praise about the books I create (and the experiences clients have partnering with me to make them). Thanks to a few fellow creative entrepreneurs for the push to not only share some testimonials, but to celebrate them!
Memoir & First-Person Storytelling
MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND STORY
“Rather than prioritizing confession and catharsis, today’s authors are focusing on the question of who gets to share their version of things and interrogating the form, along with themselves.” Megan O’Grady on how recent literary memoirs take a different tack.
WALDORF STORIES
In honor of its 90th anniversary, NYC’s Waldorf Astoria hotel has created a website to share stories through videos, memorabilia, and essays. The oral history hub kicks off with curated selections from workers and guests (including a couple who hid a time capsule in their wedding suite).
THE TALENTED MS. HIGHSMITH
“The eight thousand pages of diaries and notebooks [novelist Patricia Highsmith] left behind—an edited version of which will be published this November—depict an engaged, social, and optimistic youth.”
NAMING THAT EXPERIENCE
“Eldest daughter of an immigrant household. For a phrase I’d never heard before, it immediately summoned an avalanche of memories.” Ruth Madievsky with an interesting take on learning lessons on diasporic identity from meme culture.
“THE STORYTELLER”
W.G. Sebald’s books suggest that we are powerless to remember adequately and powerless to forget, according to a review of new biography Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald by Carole Angier.
Family History Fun
ROAD TRIP TO THE PAST
After being a stranger to family reunions for 64 years, Zoe Morrison, a personal historian in Florida, drove more than 3,000 miles in search of bits of her own family history.
GAMIFYING HISTORY?
Svoboda 1945: Liberation, a new video game from an independent Prague-based studio (preview below), includes interviews with real actors and historically accurate memories of people who lived through WW2. “We believe that games are a great medium for telling stories and have the power to tackle serious issues,” the lead designer said.
Memory Bank
THE LONG GAME
“Memory is an unruly machine, embedded in a Russian nesting doll of systems and circuits that is the brain,” Hannah Seo writes in this thoughtful look at how making predictions may impede memories from encoding.
POSSIBLE BOOST TO MEMORY RETENTION
A new discovery about the effects of magnetic brain stimulation could provide a way to improve episodic memory in people with conditions such as dementia.
...and a Few More Links
Would it surprise you to learn that the original paper ship manifests from Ellis Island no longer exist?
How making Nuclear Family helped documentarian Ry Russo-Young come to terms with her past
Are video games “crucial to the ‘creation of public knowledge of the past’”?
Jim Sheeler, who turned the simple obituary into a high and reverent art, has died.
Short Takes
What’s it like to create an heirloom book together? Let some folks with experience tell you...
Ever wonder what it might be like to work together on your OWN heirloom book project? Listen to past clients' feedback—and words of thanks!—to get inspired.
When I’m not interviewing clients or working directly with families to curate their photos and mementos, I can usually be found at my computer editing and designing your heirloom books.
I get goosebumps when I open a letter or an email from a grateful client. It’s rare that they just say “thanks” and leave it at that. Many wax poetic about the experience and their awe upon receiving the finished book. They almost always express surprise at just how much they actually enjoyed the process of making their book (I try to convey that to prospective clients, but it’s hard to put into words—and why should they trust me, after all, who is trying to sell them a product…?).
Well, let me say that sales is not my thing. I founded Modern Heirloom Books to help people preserve their stories, and sure, it is my livelihood, but it’s my passion first and foremost. So if we’re not a good fit, or you don’t want to move forward, or simply can’t afford to—well, I am not going to give you the hard sell. I may feel bad, I may wish we could have worked together, but it’s got to be a good fit (and timing is so important!).
When I do work with someone, we form a bond—honestly, it’s inevitable. Once trust is established and the stories begin flowing, the bond is initiated. When editing and deeper questions ensue, the bond deepens. And by the end of the process, when a book is almost finished and the excitement is palpable, the bond is even more firmly cemented. How blessed I feel to have a “job” that provides such a sense of connection and meaning.
I’ve been told that I don’t share testimonials from my clients enough. Maybe it’s due partly to a humble nature, perhaps it’s a discomfort with being bold…but I am taking a page from some special fellow creative entrepreneurs and sharing some of the gratitude that’s come my way. It is my hope that you’ll feel comfortable with me, and gain an understanding of what it’s like to work together.
Thank you to ALL of my clients—for trusting me with your stories, and for sharing the love once your project has been completed!
xoxo,
Dawn
Testimonials from past clients: What it’s like to make a Modern Heirloom Book
creating heirlooms to treasure forever
Here’s one I received recently that warmed my heart:
Dear Dawn,
I have just looked through your book again, as I have many times before. As always, I am amazed and gratified by your presentation, layout, and descriptions. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. It is all I could have hoped for—even more! From the Table of Contents through the final comment—I loved it all! (All!!)
I started a list of things I wanted to mention to you but it became so lengthy, I had to give it up!
It is a book to treasure—which I do—and I will always be grateful for the beautiful job you have done. IT IS PERFECT!!
I plan to have a splurge and send a copy to all of my family and friends! Once again, I can’t thank you enough!
Fondly,
Judy D.
a process that involves collaboration & care
Here’s a snippet of a review, speaking especially to the twists and turns a project can take:
Throughout the process, Dawn was a joy to work with. She listened carefully. She was diligent in working up drafts and gathering feedback. She was unfailingly patient. She brought her own ideas and didn’t hesitate to make suggestions. She even went above and beyond to supplement our research and to deal with administrative hassles with printers due to our last-minute requirements. She delivered on time and within budget.
In every interaction, Dawn conveyed that she cared as much about the book as we did.
Dawn is a special bookmaker. If you are looking for someone to create that special story or tribute to someone you care deeply about, look no further.
—Jenny P.
…and another about vision and collaboration:
We didn’t even really know what we wanted in the beginning and Dawn produced an amazing result. It is a pleasure working through the creative process with her.
—Amy H.
…plus one about process:
Dawn was always ready to make the changes that were inevitable when putting a book together, with good cheer. She is quite well organized and intuitively understood order, placement, emphasis vs. less. I was extremely happy with Dawn’s finished product and wholeheartedly recommend her.
—Gahl B.
…and one about writing, editing, and curating:
Dawn is a therapist, a storyteller, a magician, and an artist with words—how she took what we said and wove it into a story. It truly blew us away!
The process of sorting through 27 years of pictures and mementos was joyfully reflective, but what brought it all together was Dawn’s vision.
—Susan M.
…ah, and then there are the interviews!
Dawn is a warm and engaging person who makes it easy to open up during interviews—even for me, a pretty reserved girl!
—Samantha D.
finished products that awe & inspire
Dawn is a consummate interviewer, a terrific storyteller, and understands how to combine the graphic elements. She took the cream and really brought it to the top.
—Vern O.
My book was simply stunning! And Dawn was a joy to collaborate with.
—Lily R.
words that hold meaning—and bring joy, comfort
We all hope we can pass something of value on to family and friends. The tribute book did just that for Ann. She was ecstatic and we all had to fight back tears watching her flip through the book. She shows it off to whoever comes in the house.
—Terry C.
I still tear up when I look at this book, almost a year later. It is my most cherished possession.
—Maria C.
Thank you, Dawn, for sharing your gifts with us, and for becoming a part of our family story.
—Joe M.
The book was like a bear hug from my dad. I can’t wait to share it with my future children some day!
—Kayla V.
Would you like to see firsthand what it’s like to work together to bring your dream book to life? Reach out if your’e interested in sharing your own memories in a life story book; or honoring a loved one through stories in a tribute book. I can’t wait to hear from you!
**Because privacy of my clients is of utmost concern, I have not disclosed last names for these testimonials.
Life Story Links: September 21, 2021
From memories out of the box (the boxes in your attic, that is) to the craft of writing memoir, this week's curated roundup has plenty to inspire and instruct.
“When you write your family history, be a recording angel and record everything your descendants might want to know.”
—William Zinsser
Vintage photo of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Garrity and family at home in Yonkers, New York, circa 1942, photographed by Arthur Rothstein.
Stories from Life
HISTORY THROUGH A PERSONAL LENS
“I don’t know if the horse had died or simply fainted with heat exhaustion. The peddler was slapping the horse in the face, yelling and cursing at the stricken animal in a futile attempt to force it to stand up.” Scenes from the Great Depression in NYC through the eyes of a boy.
DELVING INTO THE PAST
“The people from my past became like characters…. I found a lot of information that shows how people in my family tree thought alike. We would have been like best friends had we grown up at the same time.” On building a family legacy.
FINDGING HEMINGWAY
“Interweaving his eventful biography—a life lived at the ultimately treacherous nexus of art, fame, and celebrity—with carefully selected excerpts from his iconic short stories, novels, and non-fiction, the [now-streaming] series reveals the brilliant, ambitious, charismatic, and complicated man behind the myth, and the art he created.”
“In order to have something new to write, he had to have something new to live.” This panel discussion, “Hemingway and Biography,” happened back in May but I only just discovered it and thought others might be interested, as well.
The Craft of Memoir
OUT OF THE DARK
“So when you write about your life, don’t skip over the hard parts. What would be the point? Who would you be fooling? Yourself? Oh please.” Abigail Thomas asserts that vulnerability is a memoirist’s strength.
TALKING ABOUT TOURETTE’S
Salt Lake City–based personal historian Elizabeth Thomas offers up a few tips for memoirists who want to address a physical disability in their writing, using recent book The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne as a model.
Memories Out of the Box
THE VOICE OF THINGS
“I found that going through my accumulations became an ongoing encounter with everyone I’ve been on the way to whoever I am now,” Sven Birkirts writes in this meditation on why we keep what we keep.
PHOTO LEGACY
“Long after I’m gone, and my son becomes the steward of our family stories, these photos will remain. They will live on. They will speak across generations, saying, ‘I was here. I mattered to someone. I left a legacy of love. I helped start your story.’” Rachel LaCour Niesen on leaving a legacy of love.
YOUR LIFE IN 30 THINGS
Listen in as Martie McNabb discusses a community challenge she recently launched around choosing 30 objects that can tell your life story—and why so many people have trouble discerning which sentimental items to keep and which to get rid of:
In the Books
DRAW YOUR LIFE
Last week I shared some artful memory-keeping ideas from the world of sketch journaling plus the books to help you begin to draw your life, no pressure.
ONE-HOUR INTERVIEW = 5,000-WORD CHAPTER
“I realized that if writing was not my strong point, it didn’t make much sense to start with it, over-invest, and become frustrated with a behavior I personally found hard to do.” Barry O’Reilly on working with a writing partner.
...and a Few More Links
Journalist Ron Steinman shares memories of helping his Vietnamese family resettle in Maryland after the Vietnam War, and makes parallels to the plight of Afghan refugees today.
Ancestry corrals three leaders from tech world to help grow business.
On getting past writer’s block (and the kitchen table as hub for story sharing)
Short Takes