An easy way to get a jump start on writing your memoirs is to use photographs and other artifacts to awaken your memories.

If you have a box of photos that you feel guilty about because you haven't organized them into albums, do two things:

1. Stop feeling guilty. Photos don't all have to be mounted into albums.
2. Take an evening or two and organize them into a photo file box. You can buy inexpensive, sturdy boxes just for this purpose at many department stores. Better than that, however, is to invest in an archival quality box which will help preserve your stored photos. Sort your photos by year, and place dividers between them labeled with the year (or range of years). If you have lots of photos, you may want to have separate boxes for each person or branch of the family.

Now that your photos are more manageable, pick out the best ones and begin captioning them. Choose photos with high interest, where people are doing something or there are objects of interest in the background. Captions can be long or short. A short example is shown here. Just this short caption has made this photo more valuable for our family.

Longer captions can tell a whole story. For example, see the story "Lloyd Meets Mary." Snapshops that had previously been glanced over in an album or box now take on new meaning. Special photos become even more special when the pictures' stories are revealed.

Here is an exercise in using photos to stir up memories. First, choose a photo from your past that has some familiar objects in the background: a car you remember, a neighbor's house, the fence you helped your Dad build, or the sandbox you played in. You get the idea.

Study the picture. Look at everything in the photo. List the people and objects you see there.

• me!
• a banana tree
• Momma's washer/dryer combination (hiding behind the banana tree)
• Momma's wicker basket
• a trash can
• the screen door to our back porch
• Venetian blinds in the window

Write down who each person was. How were they related? What was each person doing? Did they want their photo taken? Do you know who took the photo? Why did they? If you don't know why, speculate.

Study each object in the photo. Both those in the foreground and in the background. Take your time. Allow the memories to wash over you. Jot down things that occur to you. Don't worry about complete sentences; just capture the gist of the memory on paper. Here are some examples from my photo:

• All homes had screen doors. No air-conditioning then!
• Washer/dryer was in one unit. We could see fire through a hole in it.
• Mom sprinkled her clothes before ironing.
• Back porch was the coolest place in the summer; large ceiling fan.
• Venetian blinds were hard to clean.
• We never ate bananas from that tree.

When you feel you have exhausted your memories, put the photo aside and go over your notes. Now you are ready to write about the memories that the photo inspired.

Here's a memory that was prompted by my list:

Momma kept the washer/dryer (all in one unit!) outside the back door. It used natural gas. If you peeked through a hole in the front, you could see the flame inside. She put the clean clothes in a wicker basket and would pour them out onto the couch and sprinkle them by hand one-by-one. Each piece was wadded up and put back into the basket overnight so it would be damp through and through for ironing. Sometimes when it was really hot, Momma would iron in her shorts and bra and sweat would pour off her.

In this case, the memories that the photo inspired seem to have nothing to do with the photograph. That really does not matter. A memory has been kindled. A story has been written.

Now it is your turn. Go find that box of photos and start writing your memoirs!