A blast fro the past, brings forth writing Inspiration

Hello everyone,

 

Let me set the scene for you, so you can understand my train of thought and my reason behind my publication of this post. I’m sitting here in my bedroom, playing out a scene in my head from a dream I had the night before. In the dream, I find myself seated in a recliner in my room at the cottage or storm, where I resided during the school year. Before I go any further, I attended a school for the blind, which had a residential facility for students that stayed during the week and/or on weekends. While sitting in the recliner or on my bed, I am listening to my favorite music, either on records, cassette tapes, or on the radio. As the scene runs through my mind like a movie, the one aspect of this scene that I find interesting is the fact that it’s raining and I’m wearing my galoshes or rain boots that my mother bought me before school started back in the 1980s. Although I’m enjoying my music, there’s a strange feeling in the air. It’s comfortable yet it’s a bit off kilter. The rain makes an ominous sound on the roof of the cottage or dorm that I have been assigned to, during the school year.

Let’s change the scene. I am listening to either an audio book or some music in my room at home, before my parents put shingles on the roof. I hear the drumming of rain on the tin roof, while the fan hums in the background. My chair isn’t a recliner, but a beanbag chair. This beanbag chair is covered in plastic, instead of the cloth variety that you find today.

The fan makes an ominous high-pitched hum as the motor spins the blades at a slow speed. Little did I know at the time, that I could feel the vibrations of sound in the same way that I do now. Not only did I hear the fan’s high-pitched hum, but I felt the strange vibration of the fan. I had an odd sensation, as though my chair and even the floor, were floating downward, like the room was tilting forward, in a way. The only I can explain this sensation, is as though the vibrations in the air were shifting and making me feel a sense of urgency.

As a blind person, I can close my eyes and envision myself moving in various directions. I can actually feel the motion, while I remain physically still. I can feel this perpetual motion when I am reading or listening to a book, “watching” a movie, or tuning into the vibrations around me. My vivid imagination helps me to create stories, when I am in the midst of a writing session.

Let’s get back to the dream scene or the scene that I can picture in my mind. As the sound of the fan & the rain pounding the tin roof of my childhood home mingle together I stand up to keep from feeling as if I’ll fall off my chair. The
vibrations in the air shift again, and thunder rolls over my head. I turn off the music and the fan & make my way to the living room, where everyone else waits out the storm. The power goes out and all is silent.

My brothers and I huddle around my mama, as she turns on a flashlight & reads to us in the dark eerie room. As she finishes reading a children’s Bible story, the thunder drifts away, off in the distance, & the ominous rain dies to a soft pitter patter on the roof. The strange vibration in the air melts into a peaceful rhythm.

As the power comes back on, my brothers look out the window and gasp in awe at the rainbow they see through the white fluffy clouds, floating across the sky. The smell of a freshly washed front yard & the clean smell in the air after a thunder storm makes me sleepy. I head to my room after kissing my mama and daddy good night and let the sound of the fan sing me off to pleasant dreams.

 

The reason I write this scene, is because I’ve been listening to a book that was recorded during the days of talking book cassettes. Although the book that I am listening to at the moment, has been digitally remastered, the recording still brings back wonderful and comfortable memories from when I was a child.: Listening to those old books, whether I’ve read them before or not, the sound quality of the recording itself and the narrator’s voice cause me to visualize scenes that are inspired by my memories. Sometimes I’ll have weird and interesting dreams about the good old days. Sometimes these dreams and images that form in my head can be an inspiration to me, and I often times use these nuggets of inspiration to create blog posts like this one, and/or stories that I may turn into books or publish elsewhere later on.

 

My question for you is as follows: What brings back fond memories from when you were younger? This can either be a childhood memory or a memory from a short time ago. When thinking back upon these fond memories, what dreams do you have or what scenes and images form in your mind that inspire your writing or some other attributes of your daily life? You can answer these questions in one of two ways: 1. you can leave your answers in the comments below, or 2. you can share your answers on your own blog. When you write your thoughts on your blog or web site, please be sure to add a ping back to this blog post, so I can respond accordingly.

Happy reading, writing and God bless all of you my dear readers, followers and friends in the blogosphere.