Eleven Things

This evening I gave my Creative Nonfiction students a very difficult exercise: to write two pages of concrete or demonstrable facts about their individual pasts. I generally try the exercises I ask my students to do, but haven't had time to do many of the exercises for this course. Tonight I thought I'd give this one a go. Here are my first eleven facts.

• I was born in the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

• My maternal grandfather was Scottish and was a fur factor for the Hudson's Bay Company.

• My maternal grandmother was French-Canadian and was a nurse in Manitoba.

• I have one sibling, a brother, who is younger than I am.

• I once learned the entire libretto of "The Pirates of Penzance" by memory.

• My first hamster was named Maurice, after one of the Bee Gees. The hamster was female. I didn't listen to the Bee Gees.

• I was once given detention for writing a personalized verse of the camp song "At the Quartermaster's Store" for each member of my Grade 6 class. I ran into trouble for rhyming with Chris with piss.

• My son was born in the Misericordia Hospital, directly across the street from West Edmonton Mall.

• I learned to slam dance on a choir trip to Saskatoon.

• The first CD I owned was Prince's "Purple Rain". I still have it.

• My first radio was a hand-me-down. It was pink. I no longer have it.

You probably think it's easy to make a list like this. Not so! Give it a try -- and then share it with me!

L