People don’t write.
I asked.
Many stopped, shook their heads, walked on.
I made it enticing — easel with large newsprint writing pad, two white boards (one larger than the other), Dr. Seuss’ book “Sam-I-Am” to read to kids (rhyming couplets), pencils, pads, Sharpies (a rainbow of colours)…but still, few stopped to write.
I wrote a limerick; no one wrote another…
I wrote a haiku…(five syllables in first and third lines, seven syllables in middle line.)
No one wrote another.
Sam-I-Am was full of rhyming couplets: “Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them Sam-I-Am.”
No one wrote.
I also brought plasticine to mold the first letter of names; eventually there were two “Ss”, two “Ms”, an “N” and a dog.
It became my challenge — to get people to stop and write.
It was the mid-August weekend of The Arts Crawl in Smiths Falls. Someone asked if I’d like to participate; I said sure — I’ll talk about writing.
I’ve been writing a long time, and, it seems to me, that people are not writing much anymore. Cursive has not been taught in school (although I think it’s being re-introduced), kids print and most use computers or phones to communicate … but who hand writes?
I’m not a luddite…and until I was 19 I couldn’t type, I didn’t need to. Today, I sit down and work away at my computer daily. But studying journalism back in 1965 you had to type; so I learned.
And I had to type words and the words had to make sense, so that’s where writing came in.
On Saturday, I wrote at the top of the hanging pad — “Write a poem, a story, just your name.”
People walked on by.
When I called out and asked them to write something, the most frequent response was “Nope. Don’t want to…”
Around noon, however, more stoppers. A young Ukrainian couple stopped; he wrote, she translated.
Some stopped to talk, others to read the scantily-covered pad. One old fella, Walt, stopped and added his name; he was 80. His wife Barb added hers. There was Jen (left-handed), Tim, Evelyn, Georgia, Mike and Danielle, Caroline and Lola…
One young fellow drew an old-fashioned lantern adding words reflecting his life.
Three children stopped and printed their names — Shakeel chose red, Samuel turquoise blue and Daisy a pink Sharpie.
As four o’clock crept up, I had three pages filled — poems, names, pictures. The white boards were ‘cartooned’ with witty, grinning faces and finally, a young woman drew a sitting dog, Rudy, in pencil.
On reflection, it’s all in the coaxing. Draw people in, catch their interest, suggest a topic.
Be a ringmaster…you won’t see me out there with long black boots, a top hat and a megaphone, but I’ll cheer you on if I hear you’re writing.
Why not start with a letter to the paper…
Article by Sally Smith
