Susan Dromey Heeter, Joyful Musings
On the cover of Oprah’s Magazine this month is the statement, “How Asking the Right Questions Can Set You on a Whole New Course.”
I enjoy Oprah, her magazine and muse joyfully on the brightness and glory of a whole new course. This week begins Joyful Musing’s new course and endeavor of asking questions about you, dear readers, who have been fortunate enough to have born into a litter, a plethora of siblings, a myriad of people in one house.
Courtesy
Is that Sir Luc with Susan Dromey Heeter?
Let us begin our journey about growing up not only with a sibling or two but a myriad of sisters, a gang of brothers, parents who rarely got your name straight. Let the Joyful Musings of big families begin.
In 2018, Joyful Musings will reflect on stories, experiences of growing up in a home where candy dishes in the living rooms lasted less than five minutes, where learning to share was less valuable a skill than knowing the best hiding places, where privacy was non-existent. Joyful Musings will reflect on the stories, the laughing ‘til it hurts, the “I really shouldn’t be alive” moments of not only surviving the tumultuous journey of being one of many, but of relishing in that journey – looking back and asking, “How did my parents do it?” and, “How did we survive?”
My email is dromeheet@comcast.net. Contact me, dear reader, if you would like to share your journey of growing up one of many and providing insight into some of the questions below. We’ll begin with a simple list and go on from there.
- Did you have any pets?
- Fights? Do explain. We know there we some doozies.
- Where did you sleep?
- What about family dinners? Any stories about food?
- Where was your Mom’s reprieve?
- What about the car?
- Any accidents we should know about?
- Any insight into the great outdoors?
- Let’s talk about “borrowing.”
- Any memories of Christmas? Halloween?
Thank you, in advance, for giving me a reprieve from the world of “Careful, Careful” and returning to a world where navigation and independence was an art form – a survival technique unknown and taboo in so much of today’s world.
I muse joyfully on hearing from you. I’m going to grab a frozen Milky Way I have hidden in the bag of broccoli – old habits do die hard. Stay warm, let’s talk.
Susan Dromey Heeter, a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white, writes “Joyful Musings” for InDepthNH.org. Dromey Heeter is a secondary Spanish Teacher at Dover High School and the mother of two teenage daughters. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards. She also writes about thrift shopping and all things frugal in a column called “Budget Vogue” for the New Hampshire Union Leader.