I want to comment on my journals I kept when I was a child. This came about as the 20th anniversary of my trip to France approaches and I would really like to update my thoughts and give some back story. I was 16 at the time of the trip, an age during which I felt extremely self conscious. Although I expected my journal to remain private, I still left out things I didn’t want others to know. I wish I could take that trip again.
I should start by pointing out that i haven’t read my childhood journals in a long time. In the case of the one I kept in Junior High & High School, I haven’t read them since I wrote them. I have no idea what I had to say, but I’m going to put it out there anyway.
1
Jan. 2 1990
New Years
New Years is sharing,
caring,giving, and loving,
growing, seeing, living,
and moving on.
•Fuchs•
!Happy!
!New Year!
Brian F
2
Dec. 16, 1990
What is Christmas?
Christmas is loving and
caring,
It’s for being with
family and friends.
Christmas is kids
in the snow and puppies
by the fireplace.
It’s for Daddys with
the news paper,
For Mommys sewing
by the fire
Christmas…………….
The best time of the year!
•Fuchs•
Merry Christmas
Brian F
3
Nov. 28, 1990
Weather
Weather, Weather Every-
where,
You find it in the air.
Rain, snow, sleet, sun,
Some are gloomy some
are fun,
Hardy, soft, or inbetween,
Comes down hard and mean.
Now thats weather all
about,
and thats no doubt!
•Fuchs•
Brian F
4
Nov. 29, 1990
A Friend
A friend is what you
make of one,
Not what you want
from one.
•Fuchs•
F. F. L.
r o i
i r f
e e
n
d
s
Brian F
Okay, that was mildly embarrassing. I was 10 when I wrote the first one and 11 for the rest. What I find the most interesting is that the journal I used was inscribed to me by my dad on November 7, 1988. I have clearly ripped out some pages, which is unfortunate. Seeing what I had to write at 9 would have been very interesting. These poems were clearly written elsewhere and transcribed into this journal at a later date. I had only recently discovered poetry, so it isn’t surprising that I was trying to write it. My first poem was written in October 1988.
Fall Leaves
Fall winds swish around leaves of red,
orange, and yellow
The cool sand is nice, you see birds,
the grass feels good
Squirrels and birds gather food, it is
nice to walk around
Pumpkins decorations are neat and
fantastic
Jack-O-Lanterns are now on our porch,
fall has arrived.
Brian Fuchs
I was 9 when I wrote that and it somehow has more to it that the ones I wrote later. Fall Leaves was written for class, so that could explain why my effort was greater as well. As for the others, New Years seems to say nothing at all. What is Christmas? is interesting. It neither matches my life experience or that of the general population. It speaks to an idealized Victorian era Christmas that I remember being rather popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Weather is clearly an attempt at rhyming, which I wasn’t terribly great at then and which I don’t attempt now. Finally, the very short A Friend. I had several books of proverbs as a kid. This was almost certainly my attempt at writing my own proverb.
These poems as a whole say very little of my life in 1990. They don’t have much to say at all really.