Award winning Memoir Pieces & More
Author Susan Proctor has had a love affair with words since a very early age. When she was in college at UNC-Charlotte, she was the feature editor of the school newspaper and a contributor to the school’s literary magazine. Susan is an active member and regular contest winner in the Charlotte Writers Club, and she’s been published in Lilith Magazine, American Mothers literary magazine, the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Essay Publishing Project and Jewish Values On-Line journal. Her specialty is memoir.
Charlotte Readers Podcast is sponsored by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
Author Susan Proctor has had a love affair with words since a very early age. When she was in college at UNC-Charlotte, she was the feature editor of the school newspaper and a contributor to the school’s literary magazine. Susan is an active member and regular contest winner in the Charlotte Writers Club, and she’s been published in Lilith Magazine, American Mothers literary magazine, the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Essay Publishing Project and Jewish Values On-Line journal. Her specialty is memoir.
In this episode, Susan reads several touching memoir pieces. She has one piece about a Sunday shoe shine ritual with her late father and another about a big decision her son made in college that turned him into a Mensch in her eyes. She also reads a humorous piece about Price’s Chicken Coup and a reflection about a meaningful interaction she had with her dog and a homeless man.
The Readings – in order:
Shoe Shine Sundays
In this memoir piece, the author shares that whenever she is “tempted to get by with the least I can do rather than the best I can do, I hear his voice, “Susan Carol Proctor, get back in here and shine the backs of those shoes, girl!”
“When I was growing up, my daddy and I shared a Sunday night shoe shining ritual. He would lay out newspapers on the floor where we would line up our shoes. Then came the magic – unloading the shoe shine box.”
[The rest of the memoir is on the show]
Letter to Rick Bragg
In this excerpt of Susan’s letter to Southern author Rick Bragg, she trumpets the smell and taste of chicken from an iconic Charlotte landmark.
“I do, however, take issue with your statement that Gus’s in Memphis has the best fried chicken in the world. I understand it might be the best you’ve ever had but that can only be because you’ve never been to Price’s Fried Chicken in Charlotte.”
[More of the letter is on the show]
Just Crazy Holy People
This reflection from the journal Milestones and Pebblesspeaks to how puppy love can have a calming influence on troubled strangers in need of companionship.
“Crazy holy people brings to mind the Viet Nam vet who held watch in the strip mall where I took my Shih Tzu, Aiko, for grooming. Dirty, hair hanging in matted dreds and dressed in full combat gear down to his paratrooper boots, he marched and barked out orders as he paced. Occasionally, a merchant would instruct him to ‘move on’.”
[The rest of the journal entry is on the show]
My Mensch
In this memoir piece, the author picks up her son after his freshman year in college and learns that he is failing a class and will have to withdraw. She wants to turn around, go back, take charge and fix it, as mothers can do, but her son tearfully takes responsibility and has his own plan to make right his own mistake.
The author explains that “Mensch is a Yiddish word reserved for those special few people whom we hold in the highest esteem, those who earn our deepest respect.” This is the story of how the author learned that she’d raised a Mensch.
“Wedged into my little Mercury Tracer, every inch packed tight, my son and I began the five-hour drive through eastern North Carolina tobacco country.”
[The rest of the memoir is on the show]