The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: RIBBON

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } </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="font-style: normal;"><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></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">This month's prompts are </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: roboto, arial;">pipe, playground, prayers, recipes, ribbon, rice, road, saltwater, sandwich, school, sewing.</i></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><b>RIBBON</b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kVW9oooAsP..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kVW9oooAsP..." width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mama with her (many) ribbon-winning<br />Jersey cow named Penny.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My mother was quite the 4-H ribbon queen for sewing, public speaking, dairy and beef cattle. Alas, I did not follow in her footsteps! In 4</span></span>^{<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span>}<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">grade I won a blue ribbon for my science fair project on Mendel's theories of genetics. My display board was homemade (by my father), and heavy, thanks to plywood and quality hardware. With my mother's help, I covered it in purple felt (my favorite color). A poem I wrote about a different aspect of this experience appears in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Friday-... Friday Anthology for Science -Fourth Grade</a> published by Janet and Sylvia of Pomelo Books. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><b>Science Fair</b><br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The graphics </span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I created and pinned</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to the felt board</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">explain why my eyes</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">could never be brown,</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">my hair only blond.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I wonder if Mendel's </span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">theory of genetics</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">also applies to why</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm shy</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and can speak</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to the judges</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">only in a quavery voice</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that betrays my shaky</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hands and knees.</span></span><br /><br /><i>- Irene Latham</i><br /><br />My senior year I earned the Social Studies ribbon, which was awarded to the student with highest grade average across the school year. I've always felt it's somewhat revealing, as I've always enjoyed learning about history and culture, and also somehow prophetic, in that I went on to earn degrees in social work and to write books about experiences around the world.<br /><br /><br /><br />