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Guest Columnist
Picture plank bridges straddling muddy creeks, wandering cows, children eating syrup-drenched biscuits and shooting marbles in a dirt yard: Members of the Grove Hill Writer's Group remember these scenes and write about them. They create stories of a fading Alabama history. They are living proof that people love stories and will gather together to write them, read them and tell them. Member Susie Kennedy's advice for aspiring writers? "Just get started." This almost-80-year-old writer got started when she joined the group a few years back and discovered there were writers living and working in the neighborhoods and piney woods of her home turf, a place Kennedy admits has seen better days. While most wouldn't expect this rural pocket of the South to produce much writing, several writers living there have published and some have even won writing awards. Jim Herod, a retired Georgia Tech professor, and Annell Gordon, a middle school teacher, started the group in 2005 as an offshoot of a book club, and Kennedy, a self-described "shy violet," found herself raising her hand to join, though her writing had been limited to family histories. The Grove Hill group started with six people, two men and four women, and members were shy about sharing their stories at first, but eventually, Kennedy says, each member found a niche. When they wrote rich memoirs of family life in the '30s and '40s, they protected the identity of colorful relatives by declaring everything "fiction." Eventually the writers grew bold enough to have a community reading. They called it "Poetry Out Loud," and other writers, those they didn't know about, came forward to join. The group gave Kennedy the courage to try new things. One of the new things is the "Christmas Anthology," a collection of stories and poems the Grove Hill writers put together. The second edition, a collection of memories, includes a long poem called "Christmas Transformed." The poet remembers a long ago time when Daddy came home drunk, and Santa forgot to put anything under the tree. Even though her father felt remorse, the 4-year-old hid the hurt in her heart, scarred "by being forgotten." Another Christmas, when she did get a doll, she tripped and fell and broke off its head. Christmas had lost its luster. When she grew up, she declared Christmas just a day to sleep late instead of going to work. But she "got old and sat by the fire," and finally understood that Christmas could be transformed if she let go of past burdens and let a child - her own grandchild - into her heart. The poet now sees Christmas through the eyes of this child, which reminds her of that other child, the one the holiday centers on. She writes: "My gift is always present and always giving. I have the gift of my own living." The Grove Hill writers share their gifts each year. Though they are far from the youthful days they write about, they are just getting started.
Huntsville resident Beth Thames is a freelance writer and an English instructor at Calhoun Community College. This article appeared in the Huntsville Times Sunday. You can contact Thames at Beth.Thames@knology. net
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