Scribblers group meets to share writings

Those present at the Monday, Sept. 16 meeting of the Mt. Pleasant Scribblers Club included: Marilyn Vincent, Valerie Kreutner, Suzy Pool, Claudia Streeter, Karen Osborne, Darlene Lutes, Rita Davis, Martha Wiley, Kathy Wiley and Kathy Casteel.

Scribblers anthologies, sharing writings from the last few years, were distributed at the meeting. Members commented on how pleased they were with the end product. The anthology is available at the Mt. Pleasant Public Library in the Local History Room for public viewing.

Scribblers was visited at the meeting by five members of the Burlington, Iowa, Memoir Writing Group. Visitors shared writings in both written and oral form. Scribbler member Martha Wiley shared information to the visitors on possibilities for creating their own anthology.

A book is being donated to Mt. Pleasant Public Library in memorial of Jerri Dean, a previous member of the Scribblers group. Mrs. Dean especially enjoyed the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, often utilized the local library and had shared with her daughter that she was lucky enough to have met the writer at a previous book signing.

Writings were shared by the following:

Marilyn Vincent shared happenings as fall returns including the relatively new opportunity to receive what she entitled “drive-by” vaccinations. In “Clever Idea for a Serious Issue” she included her own battles with trying to find a doctor to treat seasonal allergies. The difficulties of trying to find a good “fit” circled back around to what she feels is a good opportunity in having these “drive-by” vaccination clinics available.

“ Country Girl’s Memories of a Small Town” was shared by Darlene Lutes. Her story told of some of the memories of living in New London, Iowa, were especially precious to her. Darlene’s story included visits with her mother to Benner’s Grocery Store to sell eggs and to another grocer where the front of the store was piled with bags of flour, covered in material that could be used for dresses, blouses and skirts, Frank Lundin’s Shoe Store was the shoe store of favor and it was always a treat to visit the five and dime.

Suzy Pool shared a poem embracing not only the enchanting aspects of fall but including a few thoughts of its rattling hauntings thread through the presentation. One way she shares her poetry is by displaying it on a simple white board at the Twonbly Museum in Keosauqua, Iowa.

Kathy Wiley chose to share the answer to a question in her Grandma journal, a gift from her granddaughter. She chose to respond with an earlier piece entitled Stars, Moon and a Mother, including an opportunity to share the magic and excitement of stargazing and a lunar eclipse with her young son.

Karen Osborne read an essay named “Firsts” set in the early days of her teaching career when she needed to fill the shoes of a teacher who had suffered an illness and had to leave her position suddenly. Karen was faced with a rowdy room of 28 sixth grade students. After a time spent dealing with their antics, Karen chose to explore with them the feelings they were experiencing concerning the unexpected change of teachers.

Kathy Casteel shared, what to her was a new genre of writing, a sampling of Gothic Folk Lore about the Navajo legend of the Skin walker. The story is planned to be a short chapter book and told of the history of the skin walkers and included a chapter where a Navajo youngster learns of the legend from the tribe’s medicine man. Then the young man encountered a Skin walker of his own.

Martha Wiley continued to share her progress on publishing her books focused on 3rd- 5th grade students, offering simple experiments and readings on science. She shared one of her instances of “Back Matter” from her fourth book about waves, including sound waves. This was entitled “Rubber Bands Can Sing” and told of the sound waves that came off a taught rubber band when strummed.

“ Restored Joy” was shared by Rita Davis. The inspiration for this piece included the number of times the word “joy” appeared in 1st Peter 1:8. It led her down a path to reminisce on moments when joy was not so plentiful and look for instances of joys in her life that bring her happiness even when it comes in the form of strains of a song on the radio.

Valerie Kreutner closed out the Mt. Pleasant group’s sharing with a poem entitled “The Old Man and the Windmill.” It spoke to the enduring presence of a windmill while a farmer’s life marches on.

Members of the visiting writers group shared stories of childhood events including “Broken Mirrors, Lasting Effects” about a little girl learning that people matter more than things. Another writing spoke of the memories of an early movie and how that related to her current writing group in the piece entitled “Creating the Shimmering Orb.”

Oral stories soon began to be shared as another visitor shared a story of her relatives canning using the roof of their house and the bright summer sun to cook the fruits and of logs her father received that had been floated down the rivers from Wisconsin to build wind breaks near their home. This prompted Scribblers member Claudia Streeter to share that her family had been involved with floating the logs and distributing them to area farmers.

Scribblers are pleased to welcome new members who are interested in being part of a group, sharing efforts in the craft of writing. The next regular meeting will be at the Gathering Space at the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church, 902 S. Walnut, at 1 p.m., Monday. October 21.

For more information, contact Karen Osborne, 319-367-5586.