Smells and tastes conjure memories in a most primal way, and can transport us right back to our childhood kitchens. Our recipe for preserving your food stories.
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When you read memoirs—or even binge-watch reality TV—the stories you are witness to often seem larger than life. How can my little life compare?, you might think. I have nothing remarkable to say. Oh, but you do. Every choice you make, each person you encounter, adds to the texture and direction of your life. You are creating your own narrative. You’ve got reasons why you AREN’T telling your story. I’ve got reasons why you SHOULD.
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Throwing away photos that hold no meaning (or are duplicates, or are just plain bad) is a requisite for organizing your visual memories. Think before you toss, though. Sometimes that blurry shot—or an old, ripped black-and-white, or the one where you are so small you're like an ant!—are worth keeping. Here's why.
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Genealogy is history on a personal scale. It helps satisfy a deep need to understand how we fit into the broader world around us. But knowledge of our ancestors does not define us. Read on for musings on why we should collect stories, not ancestors.
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This week's top 4 legacy links all focus in some way on the enduring power of photography—the power to connect us with the past, to inspire, and my favorite, to reveal stories and truths.
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Join Modern Heirloom Books this Saturday, June 11 from 10am-4pm at the Madison Storytellers Festival in Madison, New Jersey. You'll enjoy performances, crafts, and community with likeminded culture and story lovers, and what we're most excited about: meeting! We look forward to meeting you, showing off some of our books, and discovering YOUR stories. Learn more about the event here.
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This week's roundup includes #legacy links from fellow members of the Association of Personal Historians and other pro storytellers: Click for a short “flash memoir,” a moving commencement speech video, a powerful 3-word sentence, and reactions to the remake of the classic “Roots” miniseries.
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“His is the broad nose, the high cheekbones, the determined mouth, the face not like an oval or a heart, but like a square. He died long before I'd ever meet him, but I carried him in my blood.” In Beth Kephart's contribution to our “Pictures Into Words” series, you’ll find inspiration for writing about a photograph that holds more mystery than memory. Sometimes it's the wondering, the imagining, that brings life to an old photo—that carries your ancestors from the past into the present and finds the narrative thread in our connected lives.
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