Sunday's Blast from the Past Photo

This week's Blast from the Past is all about me! Every time I give my students a writing assignment, I try to model it for them. Right now in eighth grade we are working on writing Where I'm From poems based on a poem by George Ella Lyon. I actually met George Ella at the KY book fair last November. We had a nice chat and I told her about my students using her poem for a pattern. She also autographed a copy of her children's book Trucks Roll for Parker. Her grandparents once lived in an area of Fentress County which is now part of the Big South Fork, so she was familiar with Byrdstown, TN . Here's my version of her poem and and a picture of my little five or six year old self!

Where I’m From

I’m from patent leather shoes with white socks trimmed in lace,
I’m from sitting on the front steps eating ice cream sandwiches,
I’m from hopscotch boards and bikes and baseball games with the neighborhood bunch,
I’m from lightning bugs in a jar.

I’m from an independent , stubborn bunch
The first granddaughter of a farmer and a trader
I’m from “Don’t dispute my word” and “You, young’uns get out of that creek.”
I’m from great grandparents who taught in one room schools
Their school bells sit on the shelf in my home.

I’m from Vacation Bible School and kool-aid and cookies
From macaroni glued on cigar boxes and painted gold to hold all our treasures.
I’m from waffles every Sunday morning,
From the cabin on the lake where family and friends gathered.
I’m from parents who gave us the most important gift--their time.

On the pages of family Bibles my name joins all those carefully written
by mothers and grandmothers
Forever in ink on the pages of my family's history.