Young love and a baby blue Smith Corona

We enter a house by the sea in the early 1970's...and open a door to a bedroom where a young woman sits before her beloved baby blue Smith Corona typewriter, tapping her heart out. She hits the return button on the typewriter as swiftly as she types, feelings had to be expressed, emotions explored..life was unfolding before her, she had so much to say. Her journal was a collage of thoughts and sentiments, her own and others. On this occasion she was writing about broken hearts and typing a poem she discovered, written by another 17 year old girl, who felt as she did...someone who also understood the trials and tribulations of love..the inevitabilities.





Fast forward to 2010, while unpacking from a recent move, the woman who once owned a baby blue Smith Corona discovers a file and in it are all the pages she typed as a young woman. The 'ping ping' of her typewriter is now a distant memory...the collage of her thoughts in her journal have since turned into a collage of life on her blog. She adds the poem to her blog, a sweet memory of young love.

You have probably guessed that the young woman was me and how I loved that baby blue Smith Corona. I haven't thought about it in many years... until today. I received a note this morning from Teri, a fellow blogger, who discovered my post, she had also saved the same poem and wrote to tell me about it. I was so touched that I have not been able to stop thinking about it all day. She wrote to say she found the author via google and wrote to tell her about the coincidence. I was delighted.

The title of the poem is Inevitabilities...how appropriate, all these years later. We both had a wonderful trip down memory lane. For me, it is another kindred spirit discovered through blogging. What a great way to start the new year. My sister would say 'it is a sign', perhaps it is. I have spent the afternoon searching out and reading those journals...reading myself at 17...37 years later. It has been quite an adventure.

I send my thanks to Teri @ Quinceberry (a thoughtful writer and talented artist) for making my day and to Jean Grasso (Fitzpatrick) for writing a poem about young love all those years ago. Kindred spirits indeed.

The post I wrote in 2010...

Young Love and Austin America 

Posted 30th April 2010

 by Jeanne @ Collage of Life

I am still unpacking, months on from our move and have started on my past. All those years ago, in my mid-teens I used to write and collect poetry and verse. This one goes all the way back to the early 70's.  I could never bare to part with it and would like to share it with you. I do not know where it came from, I credited the author and all I know is that her name was Jean and she lived in New York.  Most likely it was from a magazine because it was the 70's and we had limited options back then. My how the world has changed! 

INEVITABILITIES

a memory is but a dream

  too tangible to hold

like a snowflake that has glistened and sparkled

     floating 

                     gently 

through 

                the

                           air

only to melt

into icy cold water in the palm of your hand

leaving no hint of past lacy whiteness

and if in ten years I have forgotten

how much shorter I am next to you

      or the middle name of a boy I call "Cav"

I will remember all that is important

because

     between leaves of English verse, a pressed orchid

     a pair of white Levi's on some other, worthy boy

     or a yellow Austin America glimpsed from

                   a strange corner (different faces inside)

will bring alive two seventeen-year-olds

         unspoken dreams and promises

         fingers entwined in quiet moments

         soft I-love-you's whispered in the transiency

      of a summer evening

(I marking time with the crickets song until

       autumn and Yale abort you from our world)

and the familiar contentment will rest aside me

as I remember the times I needed you

  and you held me so tenderly

when I cried for those huge realities

even you could not change

although you would have if you could

so I will remember

and shed a tear for two

and shake a fist at the sky 

for whatever it is

that melts snowflakes

By Jean Grasso

 17 years old

1970's

 Tarrytown, New York

USA

Note: I have written the poem as I typed it all those years ago.

There you have it, young love.  I wonder what happened to Jean and the boy with the middle name "Cav". For those of you who like me, were unsure what she meant by Austin America, I discovered that it is a car fashioned by the designer of another favourite of mine, the Morris Minor.

Built by the British Motor Corporation and designed by Sir Alec Issignois and Pinin Farina who also designed of the Morris Minor and Mini. The Austin America was exclusive for export from the UK to the USA and was sold from 1968 to 1972. Approximately 59,000 were exported to the USA with production ceasing in 1974. Short but sweet. For more information you can go to Austin America.

ORIGINAL POST HERE

Top image

Bottom and reference to car here~image