Tuesday, September 27, 2005

ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE

SECRETS

Oh my......just the addition of that little "s" made this challenge a bona fide challenge! It came to me like a bolt of lighting. Ever since I have been a young child I have been full of secrets. It was a logical progression. I was the eldest child, the only girl with three brothers. 11 years later my first sister was born. Saddled with Roman Catholic parents, "from the north",  in a small southern town where everyone knew everyone's business  being secretive was the key to survival.

I'm heavy with secrets. As a child, as a woman. My secrets were much more interesting as a child.  Such as pinching cigarettes from the parents of my friends who were careless with the abandoned packs...usually Larks or Tarytons. We smuggled them  like precious jewels to the tree house to light up and pass from grubby hand to hand at 12 years of age. Younger still, on a dare to blatantly steal from the 5 & 10 the highly coveted sharpeners and mechanical pencils for trading during school. So brazen, we would grab the paper bags from under the counter and walk into the aisles of helpless merchandise. Yes, we got caught. Another story for another time.

I began to write journals at the age of 12. I hid them in my room. I was a champion on finding hiding places.  I had many prying eyes, not only my three savage brothers but my Mom and Mae, the lady Mom had come once a week to help clean the house. (Mae is another story for another time). I wrote all my secrets into those journals. I called them "Bibles". I burnt most of them in the fireplace in 1979. I wish I hadn't. I'd give anything to have them today. Only one survived, the original Bible. It is presently in the storage area.

Once I realized I would photograph my "Bibles"/journals I was able to find several scattered about the house! Hidden...naturally....that is the fun of it.

I am almost finished with the 150 page monster I picked up a year ago. I fancied it because it is a five subject notebook. Translation...eight pockets to stuff things in! It was ambitious for a one year journal. I have about 50 pages left . Lots of room for many more secrets.

The other participants:

Patrick...A Stop At Willoughby

Lahoma...Lahoma's Laments

Promise...Promise Me -Cancelled

Becky...Where Life Takes You

Dorn...Through The Eye Of The Beholder

Karen...Musings from Mavarin

Betty...My Day My Interests

Mary...Alphawoman's Blog

Sara...Photographic Memories

Debbie...Me Thinks Too Much

Renee...wwwTimelessCalligraphycom

Phinney...Paragon

Marie...Photographs Memories

Carly...Ellipsis

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mary :)

I love the tiera and the boa...i have one just like it in white! LOL. Being a girly girl is so much fun. :)

Love, Carly :)

Anonymous said...

I like the photo a lot, but I like the words more.  I never had the discipline to keep a journal - until AOL-J, that is.  I have to wonder about the reason for the burning incident - but I suppose that's a secret, too! - Karen
http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2019

Anonymous said...

Your picture is perfect!!!
Connie

Anonymous said...

Re: Pink Pages...you type your journal? (I mean, duh, THIS is a journal and it's typed...but...ya know...)

Anonymous said...

I love the whole composition of the picture.
I have 2 secrets, one is mine, one is someone elses.  I am a good keeper of secrets, the person who trusted me with their secret doesn't know my secret, and probably never will.  But they don't mind because they know I will never tell theirs either.

Anonymous said...

very nice 'secrets' entry.  mine also contains a journal.
you wrote alot more than i did, however.  :)  does that
make me even more secretive?   ~phinney

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it only takes one of your pictures to set me off to thinking about my days growing up. Then I will read your entry, like today and I an propelled into the past to loll for hours. Hah, I stole cigarettes from any pack left in sight. I also kept a medicine bottle in my jacket pocket so I could put a little whiskey in it from an unattended bottle. Now, that made you the "Man of the hour" with the other guys on a Friday night at the CYO dance. Thanks, My Regards, Bill.

Anonymous said...

Great composition to your photograph.  Very revealing.  Glad you were able to keep your thoughts hidden from all those prying eyes.
Donna
Dust Bunny Protector

Anonymous said...

It wasn't the picture that tore at me.  It was the words.  I too burned all of my journals.  I too wish I hadn't.  Wouldn't be fun to have them today.  Pennie

Anonymous said...

You are so fortunate to have saved that one bible!
I wish that I had. The many stories of how I have gotten rid of my many journals are journals unto themselves.

Alas, I wish I had opened a safe deposit vault.
Maryanne

Anonymous said...

WHat a great picture...I wish I had thought of it. I have kept a journal/diary since I was 9 years old. I still have them all. My first one being a "Hello Kitty" diary.  It is amazing to read what was important to me when I was 9 and what is important now. Thanks for sharing this with us.  

Robin

http://journals.aol.com/robinngabster/Thesearethedaysofourlives/entries/1108

Anonymous said...

Great picture and entry. I remember keeping early journals and some notebooks filled with stories I wrote. My mother came upon them and destroyed them. I was furious. If you think being Catholic was tough you should have met my Dad, a Southern Baptist from the South living in the north married to the daughter of an Irish Catholic!

Anonymous said...

I am a puppy with many secrets!  And some *I* don't even know!  Like...  where I put my chewtoy...  and...  my favorite flavor of lint!   Sometimes I whimper and my owner has to figure out exactly *what* it is  I mean!

Peaches!
http://www.livejournal.com/users/peachesthelab/

Anonymous said...

oh, I loved this post. My journal from the art center will be a keeper as well.... stuffed inside are all the postcards from the gallery showings and other stuff that I have helped to create.
Because of my memory stuff we take a lot of pictures and I have a box that I put ticket stubs and cards and all kinds of stuff into.
judi

Anonymous said...

Very neat.
V

Anonymous said...

WE all have secrets that wouldn't be a secret if they were revealed!~ I like the one who has a picture of their daughters diary/bible writen in flourescent ink and can only be seen under a black light bulb.  Her daughter takes out her black light bulb and hides it from her mom.  I will need this information/knowledge to read my daughters future secrets.
Renee' at http://journals.aol.com/acyrlicstains/publish/entries/1474

Anonymous said...

I tossed the journals from my youth as well and now wish I hadn't either.  Not that anything in them is so important, just regretting the impulsiveness of that decision so long ago.

Dona

Anonymous said...

I have always had a journal, ever since I can remember. Unfortunately , I can't remeber where they are!
Marti
http://journals.aol.com/sunnyside46/MidlifeMusings/entries/1946

Anonymous said...

i love this photo and entry.  i have often fancied the thought of burning all my 'bibles', as you call them...then wonder if i would regret one day, thinking i will,  i still have them....my little closet library !  what a good idea to photograph them.