Taylor Dyer's Keepsake

Earlier this year, I worked with several students at Heritage Middle School in Ringgold, Georgia. I shared my tips for writing stories about keepsakes and encouraged them to give storytelling and writing a try. 

Taylor Dyer wrote a keepsake story about a baseball signed by pitching great, Tom Glavine.

Taylor Dyer was one of those students. I love his hook—the way he opens his keepsake story with the tension of a close ball game. I also love the way he articulated the sound of a baseball being hit with a bat—"BANG." I know that sound. As I read Taylor's story, I could hear that sound in my head.

Enjoy Taylor's story, "The Autographed Baseball."

“Go! Go! Go!” the fans roared. It was the last inning of the game and the Ringgold Tigers were down by one point. There was a runner on second and third with two outs.

BANG!

I have played baseball since I was very young, especially with the Ringgold Tigers select team. When I was young, baseball became a habit for me, but as I grew older, baseball started to fade away from my life.

I enjoyed playing baseball with my friends Dalton, Blake, and Wyatt, along with my other friends. Our team had won many games including the Region Championship where I had made two out of three outs in the final inning to win the game.

One of the things I enjoyed most about baseball was hanging out with my friends all the time. We would always go somewhere after my game, whether it was out to eat, to an amusement park, or over to a friend’s house to spend the night.

When I was ten years old and my team made it to the World Series, we went to Panama City, Florida. My team and I had a blast. We ate at lots of restaurants where we devoured delicious food. We won most of our games including one against a team that Tom Glavine’s son pitched on. For those of you who aren't familiar with Tom Glavine, he is a legend. He was a left handed pitcher for the Atlanta Braves during the late 1990s. 

The other team we were facing had maintained the lead throughout the majority of the game, but in the last inning of the game, our team rallied. We scored consecutive runs that put us down by only one run. There were runners on second and third and two outs.

My friend Peyton was up to bat. He didn’t swing at the first few pitches, then, “BANG!” He nailed a grounder up the middle of the field allowing both runners to score, giving us the victory. It was a hard-battled game, but we came out with the victory.

After the game, my family and I went to the opposing team’s dugout where we met Tom Glavine. He autographed my baseball and my baseball hat. I was so excited that I met one of my favorite major league players. When we returned home to Georgia from Florida, I put my baseball in front of my window in my bedroom so I could admire it every day. The ball smelled like leather, just like my baseball glove.

As I started losing interest in baseball, I began to appreciate the ball even more. It brought back so many great memories of playing baseball with my friends.  Since all of my friends on my team now attend different schools, I hardly ever see them. No matter how much I hated the hot weather, or how many times I said, “ I don’t want to play baseball,” my autographed baseball will always make me miss the greatest moments of that time.

—Taylor Dyer, Heritage Middle School

Taylor also sent this photo of himself and a teammate standing with Tom Glavine. I'm sure that was an exciting moment for him and his friends. And kudos to Tom Glavine for signing balls and posing for photos, even though his son's team lost that day.

Thank you for sharing your story, Taylor. Keep writing! You are a wonderful storyteller, and we certainly need more storytellers in the world moving into the future. Best of luck to you!

The Eastman Chemical Tank Car

I browsed various Tumblr blog posts this morning and paused to read through a list of thought-provoking questions.

Paul Garrison's story about a model train car is part of Project Keepsake. 

147. Mars for Snickers? 
Definitely Snickers, I thought.
148. What's your favorite quote?
Thoreau's "In wildness is the preservation of the world," popped into my mind.
149. Do you believe in ghosts?
Maybe.
150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what's the first line on that page?

I grabbed my copy of Project Keepsake, flipped to page 42, and instantly recognized the story as Paul Garrison's "The Eastman Chemical Tank Car,"  a hauntingly beautiful story chronicling the life of an adopted son as he faces the death of his parents and searches for some type of resolution to the events of his life. 

I know Garrison, and he doesn't consider himself a writer, yet his story is one of the most powerful stories in the collection. It stars a cast of real people I knew long ago, living tragic, tormented lives—divorce, sudden death, neglect, psychological abuse, dementia, grief. I wept the first time I read it. 

At the core of the story is a young boy's innocence, imagination, and his love of train sets—a simple and almost universal concept.

“The trains were not really my toy trains—they were my father’s. The train set came out only once a year, for about a month around Christmas. My father, Lawrence Garrison, pulled out the boxes and assembled all the pieces into electromechanical magnificence.”

— Paul Garrison from Project Keepsake

Just like the other stories in the book, Garrison's story isn't really about his keepsake. His model train car holds thousands of memories. He condensed the memories and emotions down and penned the story. Here's another excerpt from the book. 

“Each new day brought new tracks and new destinations. Uncle Georgy provided for me and Georgia, making sure we had life’s necessities and doing his best to make us decent, well-adjusted people. We eventually called him ‘Dad,’ and he became our dad, though to him, I was still, ‘Snot.’

Over the next thirty-six years, I experienced mostly great fortune. I did not get drafted into war. I graduated from Georgia Tech, met my beautiful wife, Annie, and found excellent work. Annie and I travelled the world and participated in the Internet boom. I lived a life most would envy.

Then in 2009, Uncle Georgy’s—Dad’s—health declined dramatically. He developed what he called a serious case of the don’t give a shits. For years, he had been the main caregiver for my mother, who lived with dementia and stayed in bed all day, every day. He lost a lot of weight and was not too concerned about any of it.

He died in May that year. I had seen it coming and was as prepared as I could be. I told my mom, but she never fully digested the news. Georgia and I found a funeral home and scheduled the cremation, just as Dad requested. He had asked us to plan the least expensive funeral possible, and we obliged. We bought an inexpensive, marble urn for his ashes.”

— Paul Garrison from Project Keepsake

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Garrison's story reminds us that like a train, life barrels down its course taking different tracks as directed by some grand engineer. We can't stop it. Some of the changes are welcome, while others are not. 

Do you have a keepsake? Where did it come from? Why is it special? Share the story.

Project Keepsake is on sale with free shipping and handling. It's great gift item, especially for the holidays. Buy it right here right now, and get a free bookmark.