Memoirs of a Lit. Girl

Recently Linda contacted me on behalf of two of her friends to ask if they could have a copy of the Lit. Guide. For those readers not familiar with The Guide, it was a comprehensive compendium of general advice designed to help newbies in the word of chat. It was written by Jess and I, with contributions from many others in what now seems like another lifetime ago. Delighted that somebody might still be interested in it I added the caveat that I may not be able to find it. Certainly, locating it proved problematic. With four PCs all with a minimum of two internal drives and a stack of external drives, it initially seemed I had lost it. Eventually I found an old 30 GB drive (Remember when they used to make drives that small) under a pile of papers, mounted it and to my relief found the errant file.

Later Linda’s friends connected by Messenger and asked if they could take The Guide over and update it. Happy to oblige, I agreed and we spent an hour talking about the old days. To my astonishment they revealed that Jess and I were still fondly remembered and soon we were talking about people that we knew and bit by bit long forgotten memories came flooding back. Eventually, after much arm-twisting I agreed to complete some pieces I had been working on, with the proviso they forward me copies of updated material for posting on the Blog. Later, after they had logged off, I returned to my old hard-drive and began randomly opening files, and before long realised that it was nearly three years ago since my on-line life began. Tempus fugit! Like a child in a sweet shop dozens of long-forgotten memories began to spring back to life. Intermittently I laughed and occasionally tears came to my eyes. Work however is an exact mistress and my phone ringing put an abrupt end to my reminiscences. Later that evening over a beer my mind began to drift and I returned to my memories. With my Lit career long over and my on-line time dramatically scaled down, I decided it might be fun to write my memoirs. It might I decided make good copy for the Blog and would hopefully complement exerts from the redrafted Lit Guide.

I also wondered if by sharing my memories - it might prompt others to also share their recollections of the halcyon days of Lit. Should this produce consternation in some quarters it is NOT my intention to write a ‘kiss and tell,’ simply to record a little fun history for posterity. Largely it will address funny or general interest matters and in sensitive issues, people’s anonymity will be preserved; apart from a few close friends who might expect a suggestion of good-hearted stick.

Another reason I decided for sharing my recollections is that my stewardship of this Blog is not limitless and it might be useful to record the era before endeavours fade, or the records are lost forever. While it has been said that ‘only historians repeat themselves not history’ the past it can be argued still shapes the future.

Despite the earlier caveats I am mindful of Gerald Clarke’s advice: In the writing of memoirs, as in the production of shows, too much caution causes the audience to nod and think of other channels.

The Memoirs will appear as and when, but hopefully will be a weekly feature. I hope they will bring back and be a celebration of happy memories for those who were there and something to think about for those who weren’t.