It is always a thrill when stories by ‘As Time Goes By’ group members arrive in my email inbox each month. Many of this month’s 'Right Here, Right Now' stories explore experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic and are well worth reading.  Bev Morton’s story ‘Right Here, Right Now… Portrait of a Pandemic’ and Claire Rudolph's 'Right Here, Right Now' stories are included in the September newsletter; others will be published in future newsletters and included in ‘Covid-19 Musings’.

Becoming immersed in writing memoir-based stories is a wonderful way to stave off loneliness, particularly if living alone.  Reminiscing is also supposed to be good for retaining our linguistic and other skills!   If you would like to write and submit stories on our monthly topics during this most unusual, rather surreal, time, email them to me at bevlee47@gmail.com on or around the 4th Monday of the month or arrange to drop your story in my letterbox!  

Our September topic - due on or around Monday 28 September – ‘I came down with a thud’… or ‘Out of the Blue’ -  ‘Share your memories of a time when ‘you came down with a thud’ or when something happened ‘out of the blue’ in 500 words’.
 
Bev Lee

Our monthly stories are being shared as topic ‘collections’ on the website – a way of sharing them which allows recognition of common memories so enjoyed when we shared stories in class BC ie…’before covid’.  This month ‘Car Stories’ and reminiscences drawn from our ‘Ideas Piggy Bank’ were shared on-line and added to our individual pages on ‘Our Stories’.  A further story has been added to ‘I Grew Up ...’.

With more time at home on our hands, a master list of ‘500 words’ topics covered since the group commenced in 2015 to the end of 2020 has been emailed to class members. The aim is to encourage everyone to keep writing during the Covid-break!  There’s also a column for ‘decades’ to help us to sequence stories into whether they occurred when we were children, teenagers, twenty or thirty somethings…, or seventy, eighty or ninety somethings! 

Our topic for Monday 24 August is ‘Right Here, Right Now' - ‘A time capsule of the present.  Write a story about a situation currently unfolding in your life, right here, right now’. Upcoming topics for Monday 28 September - ‘I came down with a thud’… or ‘Out of the Blue’ -  ‘Share your memories of a time when ‘you came down with a thud’ or when something happened ‘out of the blue’ in 500 words’. Email stories to bevlee47@gmail.com.   All welcome to join in!

Bev Lee