This story begins with a man, who meets a woman, falls in love, and creates a family. This is how I connect to my family, and even though love seems to occur in these few steps, it is what holds my parents, my sister and I together. The land we live on has contained many pieces of history that my sister and I have found through our time playing outside in our yard, and it is true that we found an old wristwatch in our backyard, as noted in the story. I hope you enjoy the story I have made about how my family came to be, and as I note in my story, the land we all live own belongs to the past, the present and the future.
The Building of a Home
Once upon a time there was a piece of land. Uninhabited, overgrown and really not a place one would like to call home. But this piece of land becomes the story of a man who decided to look past its thickets and woods and see it as a place of happiness. We will call this man Neil. Now Neil worked in the local car shop, just down the road from the land. His days were long, but the pay was good and at this time that’s all that really mattered to him. Every morning he stopped off at the coffee shop, just before work, and ordered the same black coffee and blueberry muffin. Then to work it was.
Neil bought the land when he had saved up for a down payment. The endless aching muscles and tiredness had allowed him to buy this place, where he would now build his future. He began by clearing what would be the front yard and the house area of all the brush. The sun was hot, but he enjoyed being in the fresh air among what was now his. Next came the foundation, which began with concrete blocks which were used to hold up and level the main floor. The walls were then followed by the roof, all done by Neil’s hands. The structure of the house complete, he contemplated how he wanted to decorate and make his new home. He stepped back from looking upon the front of the house and heard a crack. Neil looked down and saw an old wristwatch, the leather falling apart and the inside of the watch fading yellow. He put it in his pocket and went to the coffee shop, as it was hid daily routine to visit.
You see readers, it was not just the coffee that Neil liked the most about this shop, it was the girl who worked there and always smiled at him when he came in. We shall call her Charlotte. “You have really changed that old plot of land up the hill there. It’s really starting to look good” was all she said to him. He smiled and said as manly as can be “Oh it looks okay so far. I just need a genie to finish it for me” which made her laugh. And funny enough this was how their relationship began. Just a simple exchange of words, a few laughs and the beginning of a loving family.
So the couple began the task of building their home, putting in a kitchen and a living room. The land had now become a home for them and as the years went by the front yard contained a porch, which led to a swing in the front tree, a dog in the doghouse and a bicycle, with training wheels of course. This unloved plot of land had now become a home for Neil, Charlotte and their daughter’s Amelia and Allie. By building it together they had created a bond so strong with the land that they now felt that they had become a piece of it. Looking through an old drawer, mainly now consisting of crayons and coloring books, Charlotte found the old watch in the back corner. She questioned Neil who said “I found it when I was first building the house. I guess somebody must have dropped it.” Charlotte saw an engraving on the back marked M.L. They took it to the local post office and asked them if they knew of anyone living in the area with those initials. After some researching, they realize it had belonged to a Matthew Leroy who had owned the property 70 years beforehand. Neil felt disjointed, as he thought he was the sole owner of the land, which he had thought had never been touched. Charlotte remarked “This land belongs to those in the past, present and future. Someday our daughter’s will live in it and call it their home. The world belongs to all of us, and will be passed down to future generations. We call this our home, as many others have as well.” Neil smiled and thought of the truth of what she said. He leaned down to kiss her and smiled. He was happy living in the present with the love of his life and his daughter’s coloring at his feet.
An Explanation of the Story
I really like writing stories, and this caught me when I was driving home from work. I wanted to create a place where love happens and where the family is the center of the home. This is much like how I have grown up with my family, which have always been there for me and have been my stable building blocks as I have grown up. My parents built the home we live in now, and have shaped the land so that my sister and I could spend our childhood playing in our tree house and exploring our forest. Much like the couple in my story, my home has been my place of relaxation and memory. It has been built on love and a strong family bond, which to me is the essence of home. The book that I have hyperlinked in this blog is actually one I have read for a previous course and thought that it would be really interesting to share. I found it amazing how the family and its values can alter from each family and found it a really good source in understanding the value of the family in our society. (I have included the link to the book which can be found on Google Books if anybody is interested in reading it 🙂 ).
“Who Owns the World?” Kay Cahill and Jennifer Copley. WordPress, 2 July. 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. <http://www.whoownstheworld.com/canada/>
“Family Values: Subjects Between Nature and Culture.” Kelly Oliver. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.
“Family Values: Subjects Between Nature and Culture.” Kelly Oliver. Google Books, 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. <https://books.google.ca/books?id=7z_fqGpgSkUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=family+values&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XtjqVKCzB4W7ogSBpILoDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=family%20values&f=false>
2 Comments
Hi Alex, thanks for your story and comments 🙂 I already commented on your retelling of King’s story, but I forgot to ask you about what happened when you told the story?
Hello Professor!
I am sorry for not putting in my post what my sister thought of it! I read it out loud to her and she has a few comments on the storyline and about stories in general.
When I told the story to my sister she asked “Why did the man not just
stay in his paradise?”. And at first that would seem like the best option for him; he had everything he needed to survive and be content. She also said that most people, along a journey such as his, would not have given these strangers his last remaining food and water. This made me think about our own culture and how people do not always share or help others. My story almost fantasizes the fact that a person will always help those in need (even if it affects their own life) as this is not always seen in our society. I made the man in my story help others so that he would be able to achieve his goal in reaching a new home. By giving the little that he had he was able to reach his goals (my sister said this seemed little farfetched). I explained how the story related to the retelling of the original story and how our assignment was to recreate it, but still keep some elements in it. She saw the evil in my story as moving from paradise to a place unknown, and how my story could be changed so that the people he meets are unkind and not what he expected. Words can be altered and changed, but for those who are listening or telling must be careful as to what words they choose to use.
After I told the story my sister said that if a story is changed from the original, was the original changed from a pre-exisitng story? Stories in a sense can be passed down from generation to generation and the creation of a new story can always be linked to different stories too. In a sense then, from my sister’s standpoint, all stories are related to each other which form a coherent bond which helps the reader to connect to the story itself.