Past Prompts

What was mealtime like as you were growing up? Did you sit down with your family for home-cooked meals at a certain time every day? Were you expected to remain at the table until everyone had finished eating? Was there lively conversation or was it relatively quiet? Or maybe you enjoyed those convenient TV dinners while watching family friendly fare on the tube. Think back … how did your mealtimes as a child compare with those as an adult, or with your mealtimes today? Share your mealtime stories forward. Start Writing Read Stories

In 2017, the last time Retrospect asked about 9/11, memories might have been raw. But with today’s global pandemic crisis, which has killed more than 4 million people worldwide, 9/11 might seem distant—a single day when the threat to our security, a sudden blow from a terrorist force, killed 3,000 people. Think back … about your recollections now that 20 years have passed. What stands out about 9/11 now? What would you like today’s children and teenagers, who were born after 9/11, to know? Share your 9/11 Twenty Years Later stories forward. Start Writing Read Stories

On this Labor Day weekend, let’s focus on the “going” to work as well as the “working.” Think back … as a child, did you know how the grown-ups in your life got to work? In your own working life, did you ever have trouble getting there? If your employer did not provide parking, did you drive anyway, or use public transportation? What about carpools? Has the pandemic affected how you or someone you know goes to work? Share your Going to Work stories forward. Start Writing Read Stories

Sometimes a home repair is a remodeling project, undertaken voluntarily, that you are excited about. Sometimes it is a response to a disaster like leaking pipes that cause a flood. Think back … to a construction project in your childhood home or later in a house that you purchased yourself. Was it a delight or a disaster, or a little of both? Share your Home Repair stories forward. Start Writing Read Stories

Senior Citizen Day is August 21, and that’s cause to celebrate. But with senior status often come senior moments—those “momentary” feelings of drawing a blank, losing words or names, or forgetting something familiar. Think back … Did your elders have those embarrassing mental lapses? Did you understand at the time? Do you find your senior moments funny, or dread them? What do you do now to remain at the top of your game? Share your Senior Moments stories forward. Start Writing Read Stories