Draft script of "Reading Memories"

Memories

They are the things that make up our histories. They are the gateways leading to who we are. We remember good things and bad things, but the memories keep building. In the world of literacy, memories form a large part of the reader we become.

Reading memories can be created or experienced. Literacy as we know it truly began as a spin-off of memories. Ancient stories were told word of mouth based on the memories that generations past down to generations. These “oral” stories developed into folklore and was used to entertain or teach those who would listen and later became the written word of literature.

In a fast-paced world such as ours, some of us have forgotten the memories that set the train of imagination into motion. We have failed to continue the tales of "family literacy". It is the "family" literacies that truly tell us who we are in the grander scope of things, but I might argue that it is how we allow different kinds of literacies to effect our lives and shape the person we eventually become.

For me, it was hiding under my bed covers with a flashlight reading the scariest book I could find. It was the moment of acceptance as a scholar when I felt connected to the book A Brave New World and shared with my classmates for the first time my views and thoughts about a genre I had learned to love over so many years but had never been allowed to read in school. And it is the memory of sharing a story with my children that I loved to read as a young girl.

More importantly, it was this digital story that allowed us to talk about something we all had in common—reading. We all experienced different moment which meant different things to us, but it was an opportunity for us to begin a “family literacy” for ourselves where we can share moments of our past and reveal those smaller details that explains who we are and why we are that way.

Although each of us shared our memories of a fond childhood reading experience and a special place we found ourselves drawn to for reading such as my fathers escape to the public library daily to read the newspaper as a young 20 year old, and my father-in-laws experience with the first book he had a personal connection -Payton's Place . . . .

These are the stories of my families “mothers”- and they share a side of themselves that not one of us knew existed and with these stories the awareness of not letting these moment disappear has become a focus for our families future.