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  • Writer's pictureBecka

Episode 1.5 - Definitely on the shady side

The following are photos and a live writing transcript in response to Episode 1.5



Darlin’!


Today's letter is a sheet of American A3. It might be larger than European A3.


It's delightfully crinkly. I love the consciousness of the writing process within the text itself - this paper is so large it's giving him a cramp. He wonders if he'll ever fill it. It fills him with optimism.

It was hard to get this one out of the envelope.


My grandfather calls my grandmother a palooka in this letter. What is a palooka? The terms of endearment that emerge from these letters are one of their great delights.


Fascinating.




There's some stuff about a man who's been self-employed and has no pension as a result.


The need for they themselves to be "shrewd" so as to avoid similar.


There's some interesting subtext in this letter, as he answers her.


My grandfather is 24 when he's writing this letter.


I turned 24 when I was living in Prague the first time. I spent the April of my 24th year travelling a bit. I went to Budapest for Easter, the first I'd ever spent alone. I took the night train from Prague. This was before Schengen, so I was woken at each border crossing: Slovakia, Austria, Hungary. Or was it just Slovakia and Hungary?


I say 'woken'. I wasn't really sleeping to be honest.


On Easter Sunday, I ate gulash on a boat moored on the Danube. I tried to go to the opera - it seemed an appropriate thing to do on Easter Sunday, but it was sold out. I still haven't been to a proper opera in a large opera house. (Sorry, contemporary opera and proponents thereof...you don't count.)



I'm intrigued by this section about church.


What is it they're considering? My grandfather reveals a dislike for Episcopalians and affinity for Lutherans. What church was he going to? I always assumed my grandparents were both raised Lutherans. That's where my dad went as a kid. But it seems there was some sort of negotiation to be handled.


In the middle of today's r&d - well, actually just before - I got some bad news. I had to do some unplanned admin. My day diverged. I have the sense this was less destructive than it might otherwise have been.


Am I learning anything from this exercise?


I learned my grandparents liked to attend some sort of Easter pageant at the Forum in Harrisburg. The Forum is beautiful - it's a big, old concert hall close to the capital. I have been there for shows and to receive various Scholastic Writing Awards as a teenager. There's a photo somewhere. I'm holding a certificate for creative nonfiction, wearing a tiny grey dress. After I'd started skating. After I'd had my growth spurt.


My grandfather reports reliably on the weather and the films he's seeing. Films, live shows, newspapers. It's amazing, there's an entire entertainment/media industry in the navy. I wonder if it's still like that, or is everyone in their bunks streaming netflix?


He mentions relatives I've never heard of. Aunt Anna. Who is she?


He talks about his grandfather. Calls him Grandpap. That's what he called himself when he was talking us, my sister, my cousins and I. I don't think I ever said it. It didn't feel at home in my mouth. I wasn't the kind of kid who used different words for different grandparents, like Nana and Grandpop and so on.


Now I would go with him on it.


Today's stamp matches my yoga pants:


This has been a lovely letter. Like the emails my mother calls newsy. I needed one like this after Letter 4. Letter 4 was challenging on multiple levels. It make me interrogate and clarify things, which is useful and important, but it was not a pleasant place to be.


Which is now, actually.


After Letter 4, I took the letters from Phase 1, the letters W to J when he was at University. I put them in my glass cabinet with these letters and the demitasse cups that belonged to my grandmother. Things felt calmer after that. That's where this letter will go when I am done with it.


All my love,


forever and a day



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