Irene Latham's Blog, page 39

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PIPE

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?
For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are pipe, playground, prayers, recipes, ribbon, rice, road, saltwater, sandwich, school, sewing.

PIPEMy father smoked a pipe, and the occasional cigar. It always seemed a bit pretentious to me, and yet it's an image of him that I adore. I can still hear the click of his teeth on the pipe, the twinkle in his eye when he'd suck on the pipe... I've never cared much for tobacco smoke, but the scent of it does bring him instantly to mind, which is a very good thing indeed.
Here is a poem about Vincent van Gogh (who favored a pipe!) that might also be a little bit about Papa. Below you'll find a poem I wrote during 2018 ARTSPEAK: Harlem Renaissance that really is about my papa. And my next middle grade novel (coming 2021) features a pipe-smoking Papa, too.

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PICTURES

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?
For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PICTURES
"Bluebirds" by Lynn Baker

I was born into a family of photographers, so there has often been talk about “pictures.” My father loved taking pictures. Thanks to him, we have many, many slides from our life in Saudi Arabia and travels around the world. by MicaJon Dykes (leaf close-up) by Ken Dykes, Sr. (flowers at Glacier NP)While I have only ever used a point-n-shoot automatic camera, two of my siblings are quite accomplished photographers. Several of our family's next generation, including our son Eric, also have mad photography skills. I confess I am quite attached to these images, and pictures in general! "Birmingham at Night" by Eric LathamI know that there are many things that cannot be caught in in a photograph, but oh how I value the photographs I have! What secrets they share... I guess it's one way we can stop time, one way to remember everything, which has long been a goal of mine, judging from the thousands of scrapbook pages I've created over the years! And here's the thing: scrapbooks, pictures – they tell as much about the scrapbooker and photographer as they do about the subject... I love that!

INK KNOWS NO BORDERS for Poetry Friday

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Kat at Kathryn Apel for Roundup. 
I've been reading Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience selected by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond. 
In this collections of 64 poems for the YA audience, we read poems that move from leaving a homeland to finding/creating home in a new land  -- with all sorts of LIFE in between, including moments of culture loss illuminated like in “Tater Tot Hot-Dish” by Hieu Minh Nguyen; about not fitting into either one's original culture or the new one, as in “Adrift” by Alice Tao; and challenges in a new country where one feels like “other” like in “Talks About Race” by Mahtem Shiferraw:
“I don't know what to say to these people who notice the shape of the eye before its depththe sound of the tongue before its wisdomthe openness of a palm before its reach.”
A poem entitled “The Border: A Double Sonnet” by Alberto Rios begins “The border is a line that birds cannot see.”
The poem from early in the book,“Immigrant” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, begins:
“I am not buckled safely into my seatI am watching the road unravelbehind us like a ribbon of dust."
The book ends with the powerful poem “self-portrait with no flag” by Safia Elhillo, which includes these lines:
“i pledge allegiance to thegroup text I pledge allegianceto laughter & to all the boysI have a crush on I pledge”
You can read the poem in its entirety here. Meet Safia herself in this video "An Evening with Safia Elhillo." (psa: video contains profanity and may not be suitable for some students.)

What do YOU pledge allegiance to? This could be a powerful "identity poem" prompt for students of all ages and backgrounds! And the book is not to be missed. I hope you will check it out!

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PHOTOGRAPH

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?
For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PHOTOGRAPH


Somewhere, some time I was prompted to select a photograph of myself that showed me as I want to be. (The Artist's Way, maybe?) I instantly thought of this one, which I keep on my website with the caption “little Irene living a life worth writing about.” Because I want to always be this little girl, eager to experience the unexpected river flowing in the back yard after a sudden rainstorm. Willing to get dirty. Fearless. Trusting the world. Immersed in nature, in touch with wonder. Playing, creating, living a simple, rich life – and yes, willing, too, to share the joy: to stand still a moment so someone (Mama?) can capture a photograph.

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PHONE BOOK

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--> <div style="font-style: normal;"><div style="font-weight: normal;">For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Hour... BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.</a></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." width="213" /></a>I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on <a href="https://irenelatham.blogspot.com/p/th... Butterfly Hours</a> tab above.</span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><br /></span></span></div></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">This month's prompts are</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"> </span><i style="font-family: roboto, arial;">notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.</i></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>PHONE BOOK</b></span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal;">I remember phone books stacked on the kitchen counter – one white pages, one yellow pages – beneath the corded telephone. Phone books as booster seat for wee visitors joining us for a meal, phone books as lift chair for home haircuts. Phone books dangling inside pay phone booths. How thin the pages were -- like tissue wrapping paper -- and how tiny the print. <i>Let your fingers do the walking. </i>Searching the white pages to find a name, and finding twenty, thirty, a hundred names. How we'd go through looking at addresses, making educated guesses, and then we'd start calling. You had to pay extra to get your number “unlisted.” Some families had two phone lines – one for the adults, one for the kids. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br />Later, when Paul and I ran a small business, the largest share of our advertising budget went to yellow page ads. Now businesses must have a strong online presence, and those advertising dollars go for site optimization and Google ad words. How things have changed!</div><br />

"Once More" by #DearOneLBH

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Amy at The Poem Farm for Roundup, where you will find a bevy of posts about and inspired by Lee Bennett Hopkins, whose recent death has sent a white-hot jolt through our community.

I have my own LBH favorites and memories, and I'm so grateful to have known Lee, at least a little. We shared a love for beautiful language and a trust that children can handle (and need!) poems of beauty, wonder, and emotion. Our last email correspondence dated May 31, 2019 was about a quote from  Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling  by Philip Pullman:

"There's fast-food language and there's caviar language; one of the things we adults need to do for children is to introduce them to the pleasures of the subtle and the complex." - Philip Pullman

Yes! Lee and I could certainly agree on that. Lee helped me know that my natural poetic voice does have a place in children's literature. (Not all poetry for kids needs to be light verse/funny!)

Lee's impact on children's literature is profound and inspiring. No doubt he is watching us all from some unseen purple palace (on a cruise ship, maybe? from a box seat at a Broadway show?), scrolling through our posts, eyes sparking with glee over our efforts to help keep his memory and his words warm and breathing.

 One of my favorite LBH anthologies is AMERICA AT WAR: Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. War is a tough topic for anyone, and here there are fifty poems that give voice to the wide array of experiences and emotions associated with war. I've loved this book for a long time.

Here's Lee's poem, about a feeling everyone who's ever lost someone or something knows deeply:

Once More
for C.J.E.

Outside the church
I wait.
Wait for someone
anyone
to invite me
for a longing
Christmas dinner.

No one does.

The cheap hotel room
I'm in
on leave
is dank
dark
grim --
not a trace
of angels
snow
a star-lit tree
a manager
a nativity.

Just a lamp
a bed
a phone
a lonely me.

I slowly open
the small Christmas package
from Mom and Dad
feeling the hands of Mom
deep in my heart
knowing
she wrapped this box.

A pair of socks
a new set of white underwear
a tin of homemade cookies
a surprise comic book
from my treasured collection.

I find the courage
to pick up the phone --
call home.
An awaited conversations begins
continues
ends
with rivers of tears.

The last good-bye
the hardest.

I sit alone
on the edge of the bed
wondering
what
a family
Christmas dinner
must be like.

If only once more.

If
only
once
more.

- Lee Bennett Hopkins

There are many "If only once more"s in my mind when I think of Lee... one of them:

If only once more LBH would tell me I use too many "and"s in my poetry. :)

And now, a little self-promotion, of which I am sure Lee would approve: In case you missed it, earlier this week Penguin Random House coordinated the cover reveal for THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO, my new (true!) book with Karim Shamsi-Basha, illustrations by Yuko Shimizu coming spring 2020. Please take a look!

THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO Cover Reveal!

Today Alaa, aka The Cat Man of Aleppo, revealed the cover for the picture book illustrated by Yuko Shimizu and written by me and Karim Shamsi-Basha, soon-to-be published by Penguin Random House.

We are so excited for more people to learn about Alaa's amazing work! So many stories are written about refugees leaving war-torn lands... but what about ones who stay? What about the animals left behind? This true story will touch your heart and renew your faith in humanity. Plus, did I mention CATS? :)

The book is now available for pre-order and will be released in the U.S. (and some other countries!) April 14, 2020. You can donate to the cat sanctuary here.

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PERFUME

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?
For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PERFUME
Once when my sister and I were big-enough little girls to take a bath partly unattended, I had the idea of adding perfume to the water to make it smell good. (This was before stores like Bath & Body Works existed.) Ever the big sister, I was the one to lift from the warm water and dash naked and dripping across the bathroom linoleum to the counter where my mom's things were displayed.We didn't add just one bottle, of course. We added perfume from ALL the bottles! My mom was not too happy when she discovered us! What smelled divine to us didn't rest so well on my mother's olfactory senses... and there was the waste, of course. A drop might have been fine, but we'd used far more than a drop! What's extra interesting to me is that there were any perfume bottles at all, as my memories/ideas about my mom do not include such frivolities. She's always experienced sinus issues and is particularly sensitive to smells. But apparently, at one point in time, at least, my mother had not just one bottle of perfume, but several.

Pencil Poem for Poetry Friday

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--> <div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit for Christie and <a href="https://wonderingandwondering.wordpre... and Wandering </a>for Roundup, where there just might be a theme of trees!<br /><br />Hmmm... does a pencil fit with the theme? Maybe? A little? :) Sorry I missed that memo, because I do love writing about trees! I look forward to reading everyone's offerings.<br /><br />It's been HOT down here in the southlands... and I have been in a revision bubble, trying to get these novel edits accomplished and back to the editor... slow going. But good! Yes, I am feeling happy about my progress. And I've also got a new idea rattling around in my head, so that's kind of exhilarating... and I wrote a new poem, about a pencil! Read on!<br /><br />For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Hour... BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.</a><br /><div style="break-before: page;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." width="213" /></a>I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on <a href="https://irenelatham.blogspot.com/p/th... Butterfly Hours</a> tab above.</span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><br /></span></span></div></div></div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">This month's prompts are</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"> </span><i style="font-family: roboto, arial;">notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.</i></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>PENCIL</b></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LP-1oHd2yA..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="500" height="269" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LP-1oHd2yA..." width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif, arial;">My mind goes instantly to Mrs. Frizzle In the MAGIC TREE HOUSE books and the pencil in her hair! I did not encounter her until I had kids of my own, of course. Another adult memory is watching my mom use colored pencils to color in one of those beautiful adult coloring books while she was in the hospital recovering from knee replacement surgery. I did LOTS of coloring as a kid, and loved using colored pencils, because they are so much more precise than crayons...</span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif, arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">Pencils also have been an important part of my musical life through the years... how many times have I watched a music teacher write something in pencil on the pieces I was learning? And now, as a cellist-in-training, I rely heavily on the pencil to help me note fingerings and to circle repeat signs and make conductors' corrections... one must be able to erase, because these things can change as you find new and better ways to make the sound you want (or the sound the conductor wants!).</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">Once I even wrote a picture book manuscript about a pencil! And here's a poem in the voice of a pencil:</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xllK6AI4EM..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xllK6AI4EM..." width="300" /></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: center;">photo by Aizhan Sagu - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A (Simple) Message from Your Pencil</b></span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">I am simple,</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">it's true –</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">I wear a slim yellow skirt,</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">one rubber boot</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">and a number 2 tattoo.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">You can doodle with me,</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">scribble or print –</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">If you make a mistake,</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">I can take it . . .</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">and you can erase it!</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">I am simple,</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">it's true –</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">I am here</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">                  simply</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;">to help you!</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <br /><i>- Irene Latham</i><br /><i><br /></i>Thank you so much for reading! xo<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><br /><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />-->

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PARTY

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?
For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PARTY
Growing up in a large family meant that we werethe party most of the time. But every now and then, we had parties that involved larger groups, like when I turned 6 years old. This was the year we were living in Lakeland, FL, and I've written previously about the doll I got that day. Balloons, homemade cake, presents, singing the birthday song, making a wish and blowing out the candles... these were all part of the festivities. 

The only other party specifically about me that I can remember is one I've written about in my forthcoming book with Charles Waters DICTIONARY FOR BETTER WORLD: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z, with illustrations by Mehrdohkt Amini. (Cover release coming September 20!) So I will save that one. :)
I do have memories of other parties, thought not many – as an introvert, I guess parties just haven't come up a lot in my life! But when I was in 8thgrade, I went to a pool part at the home of the boy I loved, and I remember sneaking with him inside the dark pool house, where we giggled and bumped into things and kissed... while outside our friends splashed and whooped, never knowing we were there. Or at least that's the way I imagine it! Maybe they DID know we were there... And isn't that the trouble with memoir writing? What is true for me may not be true for someone else...