This is a new series of A to Z prompts, created by Dr. Lee Zacharias.
She is a professor emeritus of English, at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She has written five nonfiction and two fiction books. She has contributed one chapter for “NOW WRITE! NONFICTION” and it is titled “Riffing”. That means to brainstorm and explore ideas. In that chapter, Dr. Zacharias wrote up a list of word prompts for writing enthusiasts to riff on and spark pieces of writing. That list of words has almost every letter of word from B to W. It is missing words starting with A, N, V, X, Y, and Z.
Right now, I’m ignoring the missing words, and calling this list the A to Z list of prompts. I might include my own few words, to fill up the gaps A, N, V, X, Y, and Z in the alphabet list.
There are many C-words and I’ve chose “cemetery” as my prompt for my A to Z series. I have a jarring memory of a cemetery which I encountered.
When I was a young girl below the age of 12 years old, I lived in a house, in an estate, on the slope of a hill. The house was approximately half way up the hill. Sometimes, my elders would take me on their walk, up the hill. There were houses along the roads, all the way up. The hill top was level enough to have several buildings constructed atop it. A short row of shophouses served the needs of the residents living in the estate. There was at least one provision shop selling dry sundries and some green grocery. The prime unit at the corner was tenanted by a coffee house. There was a bicycle store selling bikes, their accessories and doing repairs too. A small playground was furnished with the usual requisite slide, spring rockers, merry-go-round and see-saw. Children played there.
My dad brought me to this playground on my first trip there. It was situated just opposite a small cemetery. It was a plot of private land donated by a businessman, reserved for the exclusive use of a certain ethnicity and religion. It was around one hundred years old and probably existed as long as the city was born. It was now a closed burial ground which was no longer accepting burials. Immediately behind the cemetery were the houses of the estate. Apparently, the estate was developed after the cemetery was established there and thus houses were planned around the burial grounds. The houses’ backyard overlooked the cemetery. Fortunately, the backyards had high, solid brick walls, to obstruct views of the cemetery.
I felt uncomfortable at this playground. I was old enough to understand the meaning of a cemetery. The hairs on my arms stood up. I had a serious case of goosebumps. I felt no joy at that playground.
After that occasion, my dad did ask me if I wanted to return to the playground to play again. I told him no.
Related:
Other posts in this “A to Z prompts series” –
(1) https://artmater.com/a-to-z-prompts-series-b-for-basement-of-memories/