STARTING A JOURNAL

A2K is a journal.

Even the Trivia threads.

Put your today's entry on here fm. But don't mention any of your faults or foolishnesses.

I wrote a journal, on and off, for 20+ years. It's a worthy endeavor, farmerman. Some questions you may wish to consider:

Will anyone read it, besides you, now or posthumously?
Will you try to write daily (it's a challenge)?
How much detail to include?

Well, good luck with it. It's an organic process...

Im used to project journals and I sumetime add personal notes I guess itll just be for me or the kids. Im not looking foranything to come of it.
I read Vern Klinkenborgs "country Life" and was amazed at what can get published. Its written from a seasonal perspective . The guy certainly is no MArk Twain.

I have a blog in which I do a bit of personal writing. I also write emails to myself to just get things off my mind. A few years ago I ran into a book on journal writing and made a list of the questions in that book for me to eventually write about. Every now and then I pick one of the questions and answer it in my blog. They also make for great thread topics. Here's the list. It's long:


What did you enjoy doing most as a child? Did you prefer doing it alone or with someone else?

Who gave you your name and why? Did you have a nickname? How did you get it?

Describe your childhood home. What was your favorite room?

Where did your father go to work every day and what did he do? Did his work interest you?

Did your mother have a job or did she work at home?

What was your favorite sport or outdoor activity? Why was this your favorite?

Where was your childhood home locate? Did you enjoy living there?

Describe your grandparents. What did you enjoy most about them?

Can you remember being afraid as a child? What was your greatest fear? How did you deal with it?

Recall for me five of the most important lessons you have learned in life.

Describe the most memorable valentine you ever received. Who sent it to you?

How far did you have to travel to attend elementary, junior hight, and high school and how did you get there?

Did you go to ball games as a child? What kind of food did you eat?

When you were growing up, did you have any animals? What were their names? Was it important to you to have a pet?

Tell me about your mother's cooking. Can you recall your favorite meal? What made it your favorite?

Did you ever get into fights with others kids? Did you ever start a fight? Or stop one?

What chores did you have to do when you were growing up? Did you get an allowance? How much was it?

Who gave you your first job? What kind of job was it? How much money did you make?

Share your idea of what makes a good friend.

Describe your favorite pastime or hobby as a child.

What mischievous prank did you pull on someone? How did it affect you?

Did you have a television when you were growing up? What was your favorite program? Why?

What were some crazy fads from your school days? Did you participate in them? Why or why not?

Who was your favorite teacher? How did that teacher influence your life?

Did you ever have a special hideaway or clubhouse? Describe it for me.

In high school, what extracurricular activities did you enjoy most? Why did you choose those activities?

What is the nicest thing you ever did for your mother and father?

Did you admire a famous person? What made that person admirable?

When did you have your first date? Tell me about it.

What do you remember about your first kiss?

Share some of your insights for working well with others.

Did you enjoy reading as a child? What were some of the most memorable books you read? Did you have a favorite author?

What were your family finances like when you were growing up? How did that affect you?

When did you first learn about sex? Would you recommend the same for young people today? Why or why not?

As a teenager did you rebel or do things your parents wouldn't have approved of? How do you feel about that now?

List three things you wish you had done during your junior high and high school years, but didn't.

What did your family like to do on weekends? Describe one particularly memorable one.

During childhood, who was your best friend? Share some of your fondest memories of fun times together.

Did you ever keep a scrapbook of photos, autographs, or memories of special occasions? Describe what this meant to you.

What is your favorite memory of your mother? Why is it so special to you?

What image of your father is the most striking in your memory? Why that image?

List one special memory about each of your brothers and sisters.

Share with me your father's attitude toward life and how that affected you.

If you were to find an old toy box in your attic, what toys would you remember most fondly? Why?

What kind of car did your family drive? Were you proud of it or embarrassed by it? Why?

Did you ever go to a dance? Tell me about it.

Did your family attend family reunions? What activities did everyone enjoy? Tell me about your favorite cousins, aunts, or uncles.

When you were young, did you ever go to a funeral? How did that affect you?

If you had brothers and sisters, did you feel your parents treated you all the same? Why or why not? If you were an only child, did you wish for brothers and sisters? Why?

Did your high school have college or career days? What field interested you most? What did you want to become when you grew up?

If you went to college or to a career training school, where did you go and why?

Where did you live when you were going to college or developing a career? Describe an unforgettable experience from that time in your life.

Share some principles on which you have chosen to build your life.

If you learned to play a musical instrument, tell me your memories of lessons, practice, and your music teacher. If not, what instrument did you want to play and why?

What were your youthful goals and ambitions for life? Which ones have you been able to fulfill?

How old were you when you met your wife/husband? What attracted you to her/him?

When did you know that he/she was the "one and only one" for you? How did you know?

Share a memory about the marriage proposal.

Tell me about your wedding day. What happened? How did you feel? Were you nervous, scared, happy?

Where did you go on your honeymoon? Describe at least one humorous thing that happened to you.

Do you remember the first meals cooked as a married couple? Do you dare comment on them?

Describe where you lived after you got married. What was the view like from the kitchen window?

When did you start talking about having children? Why did you want children -- or did you?

If you could go anywhere in the world on a second honeymoon, where would you go? Why?

Record here your ideas on what it takes for a husband and wife to maintain a healthy marriage.

Describe the most fun you ever had on a Fourth of July.

Tell me about your early family summer outings when you were young. Did you go camping? Fishing? Swimming?

Did you ever travel abroad? How old were you and where did you go?

If you served in the armed forces, describe how your time in the service affected your life. If you did not serve, how did this affect your life?

Have you ever believed so strongly in a cause that you marched in a rally or demonstrated in protest? What was the cause? Why was it important to you?

What is the gutsiest thing you ever did in your life? Why did you do it?

Where do you stand politically? Do you lean toward the left or the right? Who, if anyone, has most greatly influenced your current political views?

Did a tragedy ever strike your family? If so, how did it affect you?

How would you finish this sentence? "One thing my dad always said was..." One thing my mom always said was..."

Did you ever go to summer camp or family camping outtings? Share one unforgettable memory.

Share a favorite poem, passage of writing, or some quotes that have been especially meaningful in your life.

Is there one book or author who helped you to develop a philosophy of life? Share some of those insights.

What kind of outdoor work do you enjoy? Dislike?

What is your favorite way to spend a day of leisure?

When did you learn how to ride a bike, or to water ski, snow ski, roller skate or sail? Share your memories of the experience.

Did you ever milk a cow or spend time on a farm or in the country?

What places in the world would you still like to visit? Why?

Is there any childhood fear that still haunts you? How do you deal with this fear?

If you could carve one more face on Mt. Rushmore, whose face would it be? Why?

In what ways are you like your mother? Like your father?

Looking back in life, what one thing would you have done differently? Why?

Did you learn mechanics or woodworking as a young person? How and when? What were some of your most memorable projects?

Tell me about a special outting you took with your dad. What makes this a poignant memory for you?

When did you move away from home?

Tell me about some of your closest friends. After you got married, what were some of the fun things you would do together?

What did you enjoy doing with your mom? Share a special time with her.

How would you describe yourself, tender-hearted or tough-minded?

If you could have two hours of conversation with anyone on earth, who would that be? Why that person? What would you talk about?

What is your most treasured possession and why?

What is your most vivid memory about your childhood? My childhood?

Describe a fond thanksgiving memory.

What childhood memory first comes to mind when you think about winter?

Describe the most interesting person you ever met. What were the qualities that made that individual so outstanding?

Were you ever in a Christmas program? How did you respond to the experience?

As you look back in life, name three of the most fantastic changes that have taken place in the world. How have these affected your life?

Hayell no.... I can't even make a grocery list.

I'm the same.

I need the sharp pangs of hunger and lust to get me going.

A journal of one's life is a fabulous idea. Most people who start them usually maintain them for about a week, and sporadicly for another month thereafter.

There are a few threads that I have started on A2K, that I have considered a journal of sorts. The one about the trials and tribulations that I have had with my aging mother is over four years old. Sometimes I will read through it, and perceive the differences over time in her, me, and our relationship.

I see that, Phoenix.


I've started many daily diaries. Trick is to separate the work calendar notations and the personal stuff. The work stuff, in my case anyway, had to be kept up in order to give a background for billing besides 1/4 hour here, 4 hours there. The personal diaries ... well, sometimes I made it until April...

In contrast, I've sometimes written text on Word or Works, in prose form or poetry, or scrawled on a yellow legal pad, clear-eyed or emotional, and saved those scraps, not always on computer. When I have and have read them later, I've been happy enough I kept them. Those scratchings have mostly represented a truer me than the daily diary in some Calendar book format, even though I can get just as non-linear there in calendar format as I can on a2k.

For some reason I love making trip diaries. Get me in the airplane seat and I take out a new 'lil notebook. I don't know where that comes from - which early trip with my parents, which travelogue of the forties or fifties, which snippet of the travel lit I've read. Maybe none of those, it just seems a primal urge.

Like sticking your hands in wet cement.

I could never understand why Marilyn didn't use her bum.

One of my friend's old father had written a journal and published it later on his own (he had about 200 copies made). Actually it was more of a family chronicle and only towards the end he started writing weekly excerpts of his life (he was ill with cancer).

He died a few years ago, and everyone in his family, and his friends were
so pleased to have his journal as a reminder of him. I still have a copy of his journal, and sometimes read in it.

I so wish that my grandfather had written a journal. With him died
a lot of family history.

Calamity Jane, that is exactly why I wrote my memoirs, so my son will remember me. All retirees should do it.
.
It never occurred to me to write a diary or a journal. Never had the time or patience. My son bugged me for years to write my memoirs. After my retirement I finally tried my luck at a story or two.
After re-writing them twice I felt good and wrote some more. Now I have a whole volume of essays and sometimes I fit another one into the ring binder.

Sorry for being remiss here , but I read every contribution. I have actually begun the journal on my laptop.
My first pages were on" why I decided to write this journal". It seems that some very notable works of others personal history were started on NEw YEars Day. William Franklin, Ben's Son, produced a small journal about his step mama. (There were issues)

Buterflynet, I got a chuckle about me writing about my mamas cooking. My mama was perhaps one of the least competent cooks ever. I remember tv dinners being one of her specialties and even in these, shed overdo the mashed potatoes.

My mama would pressure cook just about everything , that way the food substance wouldnt be dried out, but pressure cooked chicken would lways look grayish.
She got better as I grew up but I remember many Thanksgiving dinners where turkeys were best described as being in the "leather hard stage"

I kept a journal all through my teen-age years. I started when I was about twelve, and wrote through my eighteenth birthday. I actually still have those seven spiral notebooks (one for each year) that I decorated and filled with my days' events, hopes, thoughts, etc.
It's fun to look back on - I didn't name my kids what I thought I would, and I can't believe what I really though I would name my kids - stuff like that.
I'm glad I have them, because there is so much I would have forgotten, but the thing that is the most fun is to look at myself back then from my perspective now. Everytime I do I think to myself- "what a spacey little weirdo I was" - okay maybe I'm still a spacey weirdo-but not nearly as bad as I was back then.
It's strange how my concept of that time and what I chose to remember and chose to forget are so different than what my overall mental image of that time was- as if I had no accurate concept of myself. But maybe that's true of most teens.
Anyway - those journals are priceless to me. I'd advocate anyone starting a journal if nothing more than an aid to memory as time passes.., and if you have kids, encourage them to do it through their teen years. There are so many exciting changes that are happening at that time in a kid's life and feelings, events, etc. they'll want to remember

I still write in notebooks- just because if something strikes me, I want to have somewhere to write it down- but I don't record daily events. I do however, make shopping lists.

my wife mkes me shopping lists because Im usually travelling about. She adds little prompts for "why We should buy only this brand" When she writes these lists , I have to laugh while Im in line because theres much literature in an epigrammatic list .

I kept a journal for a really long time. Then stopped when I got busy with work, then started again maybe 3 years later with a pregnancy journal. Then started writing baby updates to family members via email, which lasted about a year. Then started collecting "What made you smile today?" entries about sozlet. Then started my own thread here to write about sozlet. That's the main "journalling" I do now, though it's limited and I was just thinking about getting back to really keeping a journal, too. Mostly it helps me sort things out, separate the wheat from the chaff, figure out what actually needs to be addressed and what is not a big deal.

There ya go. Sounds like the start of a beautiful journal entry starring mama and the art of pressure cooking and her infamous turkeys.

Journals are gay.