THE BLUE METAL CHEST
Have you ever come across old writings from your youth?
As legend has it, the science fiction book "Universal Tides: Barbed Wire Blue" (Utides) was written in 1975-1976 and then locked away in a blue metal trunk or chest for 25-years. The magic metal chest, as I now call it because of the many secrets inside, was stored in my parent’s basement and never touched. This chest has only been opened twice since the late 1970s. True story!
In the year 2000 I opened the chest and discovered the partly hand-written and typed manuscript of Utides, and then set about re-writing it. Also in 2000, I found a handwritten manuscript of an immature and badly written novel entitled "The Sable Gypsy" which I rewrote into an interesting screenplay (Romance-Thriller). The story is set on the island of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. I wrote it shortly after returning from there in 1974.
On August 23, 2011 I opened the chest for the second time in thirty-five years. Opening the chest, I discovered my old writings: several journals, two children's books, and other writings; plus pen & pencil drawings; not too mention, love poems by an old boyfriend written circa late-1960s.
What fun to rediscover these creative endeavours again! After all, I was in my mid-20s when they were created. There was even a small blue travel journal from 1974 when I spent six months driving throughout Europe with a friend. It was then in 1974 in Athens, Greece that the blue metal trunk first came into my possession. After six months on the road, I sold my 1968 Volkswagen Variant to a Greek couple. And in return the woman gave me her blue trunk to put all my travel paraphernalia in and ship home. She was American from California and had fallen in love with a Greek man. When she left California for the last time to live in Athens with him, she shipped over her belongings in the blue chest. In fact, it still has her name and the Athens address on it.
Unfortunately, now I have to permanently empty the blue chest because of rust and its old smelly condition. Years ago I had lined it with asbestos board, making it airtight, and now everything in it is well-preserved, as new as the day I closed the lid in the late '70s. A few days ago I emptied the contents into two cardboard boxes, wondering if the papers will now start to deteriorate.
Having to sadly dispose of it, I asked a friend to take some photographs of me next to this special blue chest. Silly, I suppose, but I wanted to remember the occasion because of all the memories it kept safe for so many years. Including a Kewpie-doll that my dad had given mom on one of their first dates over 70-years ago. Kewpies or Cupies are dolls that resemble a chubby child with a tummy that sticks out, tiny blue wings, and a single strand of blonde hair. Dad won it at a carnival.
So what do I do with all these writings?
One day I’ll sift through them to see if a story sparks my interest like “Barbed Wire Blues” did and, then, begin the editing process: reviewing, upgrading, rewriting, all the while attempting to keep that first magical impulse and the underlying storyline.
So if you come across old writings from your youth, don’t discard them. When reading them you may appreciate how brilliant you thought you were way back then because you probably were!
[Copyright M. J. Milne 2011; www.UniversalTides.com; www.12GoldenKeys.com]
posted by MJM at 1:31 PM
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