Submissions to this category are generally told in the first person and cover personal reflection, autobiographies and memories of the past.
Rather than focusing on factual accounts, memoirs are more a recollection of moments in time that were either vivid or unique to the author.
It was a scorching hot day, with humidity hovering around the ninety percent mark. All of us musicians, even wearing white uniforms, were soaked through to the skin. The Norfolk Parade had not been too bad, though; the route was only about two miles, and...
The Coal Wagons The coal trains ran behind our houses from morning to night, twenty four seven, thundering down from the pit to the staithes at the river, where the coal was transferred from the wagons to the ships. Miles of seemingly endless coal wagons...
Coal-Miner Thirty year old powerloader Brian, stood amidst the crowd of jabbering miners as they waited to descend in the cage. His aching slightly overweight frame already fatigued with the stress of just getting there. He put his holdall down at his fee...
Dear Doddsy How you doing pal? Sorry to hear of your accident. Jan told me you were bored stupid and didn't have much to read, (to tell you the truth mate, I didn't know you could read). There being no telly till the kids programmes in the afternoons (bet...
June 17, 2012We buried you today. The rain fell because the sky would miss your smiling face. You lay in the corner of the cemetery, your funeral very short and to the point. We couldn't afford a proper service or a fancy urn. We took a coffee can and pla...
Geordie Martin's Budgie We were all sitting in the Pit Canteen, at one thirty in the afternoon, half an hour from the time we have to go down. It was mid-summer as well, quite a hot day and the last thing we wanted, was to be down the hot smelly dark pit....
I SwearEngland. South Shields, 1967. I leaned against our back gate, acting the big man in front of the bloke next door. Mouthing off to him and swearing even though he'd already complained a couple of times to Ma about my bucket-mouth. Thinking I was so...
I don’t remember your face or your smile. I don’t remember the warmth of your skin or the touch of your kiss. I don’t remember you at all. I've heard the stories my brothers and dad tell about you, stories about a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and...
I didn't go on the road. In the morning, I stayed back and did chores. I burned manure, did dishes, got fuel for the generator, dumped the used shower water out on the driveway and filled the shower tanks. At night, I pulled extra shifts of guard duty, an...
I had a nice office job on post, Fort Hood, Texas. I lived right outside the air field gate. I had a blue healer named Tito, and I enjoyed taking him for walks. His leash hung from the door handle, and he would push it into the door so the the snap clicke...
I finished my noon chow, and was walking back across the drill field towards the school, and smoking a cigarette, when Doug Holmes came running across the field toward me. “Hey man, they just shot the president!” “You’re shitting me, right?” “No! Seriousl...
When I was in the second grade, I said, “I want to be a geologist.” The other kids in the class, who wanted to be firemen, and policemen and doctors, and brick layers looked at me. Mrs. Callahan looked at me, one eyebrow raised questioningly. “A geologist...
The more I try to recall whether I was three or four, the more convinced I become that I must have been four, because I was wearing a new, blue seersucker suit. I remember that suit distinctly, and recall wearing it to Sunday School at Catonsville Presbyt...
I worked nights, so when I got a night off, I couldn’t sleep. I’d wander around the Ville, Anjeong-ri . I didn’t drink or party, so it was hard to find things to do, and friends. I’d eat at Dave’s Deaf Rest Stop and hang out with the deaf people until lat...
The first time I saw Spotty, there were half a dozen kids on her back, and she was walking slowly around in circles. My friend Chris was crying, actually not crying but oozing. He was allergic to horses. He loved to ride, but it turned his face into a puf...
