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W
hat started as a request to learn
more about her mother, turned
into a three years and counting
class at the Chehalem Senior Center.
Eileen Jette has been teaching the “Write
Your Life Class” ever since her daughter
asked her to write down everything she
c o u l d r e m e m b e r
about her life.
“Originally it was
a class that I started
because so many
young people do not
know the history be-
hind their parents
and grandparents,”
Jette said. “My daugh-
ter asked me if I would write everything I
could remember about my life because it
was so different if you grew up on farms,
so I decided to have this class.”
After three years, she said most of the
class members — herself included — are
caught up to the present.
“I even wrote my own funeral,” she
said, adding she enjoys the class im-
mensely.
“It is so interesting to find out similar-
ities between what you experienced and
someone else,” Jette said. “One of the
best stories was when (a class member)
was a young girl every year the river
would flood so her family would have to
move upstairs. At
least twice a boat
picked them up to
take some place they
could be.”
She said another
story talked about
wa l k i ng ac r os s a
wooden bridge where
pieces were missing.
“So you would have to skip over those
or you would land in the river. That’s
what you do, there’s not anything to it,”
she said. “But people now say, ‘Oh my
goodness, how did you do that?’ That’s
the difference between when we were
young and now.”
Jette said students no longer walk to
school, whereas they did it all the time
and thought nothing of it.
“Back in the 1950s the world was a lot
safer,” she said. “Kids could run around
and the whole neighborhood watched out
for you.”
Members of the writing class are
working on more of a diary, writing about
special events instead of day-to-day ac-
tivities. But the class is also in a state of
flux.
“We had one death and illnesses, so
the class is kind of in limbo,” she said.
“Right now a few are deciding to maybe
write on different topics.”
She said for the past three years there
have been six people enrolled in the
class, in addition to herself. Two people
are new to the class this summer and she
lost three members who didn’t continue
after their husbands died or became ill.
The class meets at 12:30 p.m. the third
Friday of every month at the Chehalem
Senior Center.
Page 4
September 25, 2013
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Personal history: Writing about a different time in one’s life
‘Write Your Life’ class at the Chehalem Senior Center teaches
members how to put their history on paper
“Originally it was a class that I started
because so many young people do not
know the history behind their parents and
grandparents. My daughter asked me if I
would write everything I could remember
about my life because it was so different if
you grew up on farms, so I decided to
have this class. ”
Story by Katy Sword
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