The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: GUN

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <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="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><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;">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;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rZ9pEXdr8h..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rZ9pEXdr8h..." width="266" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;">In January I wrote about: <i>apron, bar, basketball, bed, bicycle, birthday, boat, broom, button, cake, car.</i><br /><i><br /></i>In February: <i>chair, chlorine, church, concert, cookbook, couch, dancing, desk, dessert, dining room table, diploma.</i></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">March: </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">divorce, door, dream, emergency room, envelope, eyebrows, first apartment, first job, food, game, garden.</i><br /><div style="font-weight: normal;"><i style="color: #545454; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">April: I took a break to focus on <a href="https://www.irenelatham.com/artspeak.... Happy!</a></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are the prompts for May: </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">gloves, great-grandparent, guidebook, gun, gym class, hair, hands, hat, high heels, honeymoon, hood.</i></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>GUN</b></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">My father was a collector, and for a while he turned this sensibility toward guns. His collection was displayed in a glass-fronted solid-oak gun cabinet that sat in the foyer of our home. While he didn't do a lot of shooting or hunting -- I do have some stories he wrote about some big hunting adventures with business associates during our Louisiana years -- he believed wholeheartedly in the 2</span>^{<span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span>}<span style="font-style: normal;">Amendment and for as long as I can remember was a proud member of the NRA. </span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Because our household included five children, Papa took it upon himself to educate us about guns. I remember our “gun classes” where he taught even reluctant-to-even-look-at-a-gun me about how to hold a gun, how to shoot, how to clean, store, etc. He said, “gun safety is about education,” and these classes were mandatory. I remember the weight of a pistol in my hand, and how different it felt from a rifle. I enjoyed the challenge of aiming – how each gun required something different: a slight shift to the left or right, or, with this model, you've got to aim it dead-on. My heart pounded so hard it hurt when it was my time to shoot – and when the shot was fired, I remember before any other feeling the relief of it being over. </span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I'm grateful my father took the time to do this with us, even though at the time I didn't want to. He showed me what it was like to be a responsible gun owner, and a responsible parent.</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>*I just realized that a gun (or guns) show up in both my middle grade novels, and in the one I am currently revising (coming 2021). Clearly this is a subject my writer-heart is still exploring.</i></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #545454;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><br />