Grownups Read

* * *

So I read at the Sunday matinee of Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids (or GRTTWak), which is a national CBC radio show and podcast.

I was one of sixteen people who volunteered to read five minutes' worth of letters and journal entries and notes and school newspaper articles and comics and stories and poems. (And it wasn't even me reading the poems!)

I read from my grade six (maybe seven...) Language Arts journal. Which I composed, under duress, in either 1984 or 1985.

I had just come from the forest, so I was rumpled and sweaty, but instead of going home and showering, I'd sat in the car in the Assiniboine Forest parking lot and wrote for an hour and then rehearsed my reading a few times. I booted it down to the Park Theatre with just enough time to spare to get a sandwich, so I wouldn't have a hunger headache by the time my reading started.

And I was rumpled and sweaty-looking, because I'd left both my make up bag and brush at home, but I had so much fun reading, that it didn't matter. And everyone seemed to like it; everyone was laughing and groaning and got a second round of applause after I'd finished.

It was strange to go from being alone all morning to being so intensely in company, but both were peak "alone" and "in company" experiences, so I won't complain....

My thanks to the producers of GRTTWaK, Jenna and Dan, and to the Park Theatre, which seemed to be exactly the right size for the event.

I wasn't able to attend the evening show, but I'm sure it was equally memorable.

If I make it into the podcast—they have twice or three times the amount of content they need, so there's no guarantee—I'll post the link.