by Cookie Curci
Over the years, my column has been published under different titles:
Remembering When", "Looking Back", "American Memories" and "Legacies."
The name doesn't really matter; it's the content in each column that this
space is all about. In my columns, I've enjoyed plumbing the depths of my
family traditions, American history and community. I believe that's what its
all about-connecting-one to the other -- a sharing of feelings and spirit.
"All strong emotions leave an indelible mark," said the noted author Virginia
Woolf. "The past, Woolf wrote, "urges us to leave a trace." Someday, because of my urge to "leave a trace," I hope to leave behind
something from my columns that will be remembered.
Each new column that I write challenges my memory as I try to create new
ways of putting into words the feelings that come from living in a community
rich with friends and memories.
I've come to understand and believe that readers of nostalgia want, and need,
an element of magic and tranquillity in what they read about the past and the
longing it invokes. My stories are tinged with a touch of gossamer, that
stuff that hazes memories and enhances the past, to make them a little more
beautiful and endearing. To me, it's a labor of love, creating that
fine-spun world of nostalgia, where the bridge is gapped between the people
who once touched our lives and the lives we once touched. And I'm grateful
for the space I'm allowed to occupy with memories gathered from a lifetime in
my community.
Like most of my friends and relatives I was born and raised in the close knit
community where neighbors were friends and family was close both emotionally
and geographically.
My Italian grandparents came to this country during the great influx of
immigrants at the turn of the century, bringing with them the unique
knowledge and traditions of the old country. Many of my memories and stories
reflect this heritage. My stories of "small town" America, the early
immigrants, W.W.II America, and life today in the 21st century, touches and
embraces America's memories.
Most of my stories travel back to the past, to that "safe place" we all once
knew as children, to a time when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up,
when nearly everybody's mom was home when they got out of school, when no one
owned a purebred dog or looked their doors, or ever heard of a computer chip.
A time when two mercury head times and a buffalo head nickel was a good
allowance, when collecting empty soda bottles for the return deposit, got us
a couple of candy bars and a cherry cola at the corner Creamery, when
climbing trees, making forts and slingshots were all part of our summer fun
and when a few blocks from home was "far away" and we got all "dressed up to
go downtown.
So , come with me now, and explore those memorable days gone by, days that
rekindle happy memories of the way it was, or perhaps the way we wanted it to
be.
For over 14 years, Cookie Curci wrote a popular nostalgia column for The Willow Glen
Resident. (The Silicon Valley Metro Newspapers...San Jose califonia)
www.metroactive.com. She's currently writing a column called "Looking Back" that
appears monthly in FRA NOI - a Chicago based newspaper. In additon she writes for
"Mature Living" in Toledo, Ohio, "Senior News" in West Virginia and THE WILLOW GLEN TIMES in San Jose. Cookie's stories have also been published in national magazines: True Story, True
Romance, Woman's Own, San Jose Magazine,Woman's World, Sons of Italy, PRIMO,
Reminisce, I Love Cats, Farm & Ranch, The Family Digest, Grit Magazine and
Taste of Home Magazine and San Jose magazine.
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