Mementos

Lori Mortimer
  • 4.8 (18)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS
Mementos

Personal stories about keepsakes as containers of memories, emotions, and human connection. Mementos is a member of Hub & Spoke Audio Collective. www.hubspokeaudio.org

  1. 02/14/2024

    Hub & Spoke Radio Hour Episode 3: Love

    As the philosopher Haddaway once asked, what is love? It turns out, love can be anything that stirs the heart: passion, grief, affection, kin. The desire to consume; the poignancy of memory. Here at Hub & Spoke, we want to stretch our arms, and ears, around it all. This episode is hosted by Lori Mortimer and edited by Tamar Avishai. Production assistance from Nick Andersen. Music by Evalyn Parry, The Blue Dot Sessions, and a kiss of Dionne Warwick. Listen to the full episodes: Rumble Strip, “Forrest Foster Lays Karen to Rest”Mementos “Cherie’s Letters”Ministry of Ideas, “Consumed”The Lonely Palette, “Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Desired Moment (c. 1770)”You can also share the love by supporting our Valentine’s Day fundraiser: www.hubspokeaudio.org/love

    51 min
  2. Liz's Nonni

    12/15/2021

    Liz's Nonni

    Season 1, Episode 8: Liz's Nonni Guest: Liz Sumner Liz is the creator of I Always Wanted To, a podcast where she interviews people doing things others long to do. You can follow Liz on Twitter at @LizSumner or @alwayswantedpod.  This episode written, sound designed, produced, and hosted by Lori Mortimer. Follow the show @MementosPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mementospodcast Follow Lori at @mortaymortay on Twitter and Instagram.  www.MementosPodcast.com Music Credits: "Palermo" by Trabant 33, licensed from  Epidemic Sound "Lovers At Dusk" licensed from  Soundstripe "Riviera Walk" licensed from Fesliyan Studios ASCAP IPI 792929876, 792929974     "Cold Days Ahead" by Rune Dale, licensed from Epidemic Sound "A Way to Tell" by Rune Dale, licensed from Epidemic Sound "Sage the Hunter" by Blue Dot Sessions                    "La Bottega Dei Sapori" by Medite, licensed from  Epidemic Sound Mementos audio logo by Martin Austwick Sound FX credits: 486410__martineerok__wagon-cart-on-gravel, Freesound.org      Ziegen   Bidone  field recording     549882__guynoland__horses-pavement-then-cobblestone, Freesound.org 486410__martineerok__wagon-cart-on-gravel, Freesound.org 244292__ravelite__little-goat-bells, Freesound.org     --------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT Mementos Season 1, Episode 8: Liz's Nonni [00:00:00] Lori: Mementos. Sometimes what you really keep is on the inside. [00:00:13] Liz: All the time or thinking about living in Italy, I pictured this gorgeous little Medieval town Cortona. And I imagined, okay, so we'll buy an old run-down villa and we'll rebuild it. And I got this belief in my head that because we didn't have Italian heritage that we would never belong, that it was pointless to try to think about moving to Italy, because since we didn't have family, we would never really be a part of the community. [00:00:55] That was really behind it was that nobody would help us because we, we weren't connected. [00:01:10] Lori: Welcome to Mementos. I'm Lori Mortimer, the host and producer of the show. On today's episode, my guest Liz is gonna tell us about how she and her husband moved to Italy and the memento that they found there that helped her overcome her worries about feeling like they would never belong. [00:01:33] Liz: My name is Liz Sumner, and I currently have a very boutique coaching practice. Uh, it's gotten small because I really like podcasting. And so now I consider myself a full-time podcaster. My podcast is called I Always Wanted To, and I interview people who are doing things that others long to do. [00:01:59] I didn't always want to live in, in Europe, but Michael, on the other hand, my husband, had lived in the south of France when he was in his twenties and he had done a lot of traveling. So it was more his original desire that we would move to Europe at some point. [00:02:20] Lori: In the early 2000s, Michael suggested Italy as a potential new home for them. [00:02:25] So the first step was for them to take a two-week vacation in 2002. On that trip, they did all the usual touristy stuff in the Italian capital cities.  [00:02:36] Liz: At that point, we just could speak only, "Do you have a room?" and "I'm sorry, I don't eat tomatoes," and things like that. We didn't ever connect with anybody on that trip. [00:02:49] Lori: Liz was intrigued by the idea of moving to Italy. But at that point, she developed those major concerns about not ever feeling like they'd belong. But they kept researching on what it would take and what it would cost for such a move. [00:03:04] In 2005, they went on another trip. The plan this time was to be more intentional about connecting with local residents. They spent the entire first week in a tiny bed and breakfast in Orvieto.  [00:03:19] Liz: And the people who ran it were so sweet. They also owned a restaurant. They kept inviting us to meals and bringing food home from the restaurant for us. [00:03:31] And I remember at one point Michael, trying to explain the electoral college system to them in, in our limited Italian. It was like the opposite of what I had felt, that, that, that we wouldn't connect with people. And we were so embraced by this couple.  [00:03:55] Lori: On the next leg of the trip, they went full immersion. [00:03:59] Liz: [00:04:00] For 18 days, we did not see a single person who spoke English. But we managed, and it was really exciting and helped us -- helped me, certainly -- fall in love with this country.  [00:04:16] Lori: Michael kept researching, and he found what he thought would be the perfect location for them: the Le Marche region in central Italy. The area has Renaissance and Medieval charm without the tourism and high sticker price. In the fall of 2010, they went back to Italy. [00:04:35] Liz: He surprised me on my birthday with a trip to Venice and a plan to rent a car and travel down to Le Marche and just look around, see what's what, have it be the first step in our plan to maybe someday buy something.  [00:04:55] Lori: "Maybe someday" arrived a lot sooner than they expected.  [00:05:02] Liz: We stopped for coffee in this little town called Pergola, and it was just something about it. [00:05:08] It's a Medieval hill town. It was built in the 1300s. And, uh, it, it had, this is lovely energy going on. And it was about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning, we were walking up and uh down the street, stopped for coffee. And we decided, okay, this is the place. This is the place where we will check out a real estate agent. [00:05:35] And we come across this agency with the name Casa Mania. The sign outside was in that party font, you know, where it looks really wacky. So we thought, okay, good. Casa Mania. This is the place.  We asked if it was possible in this price range to find something. And they said, “oh yeah, sure” and started grabbing keys and taking us to see places, which we hadn't expected to do. [00:06:05] Um, the office was right at the edge of the city wall in an old building. And we just walked on cobblestone streets, uh, about two and a half blocks, through an old archway, and came across this building with a giant portone, they call it, um, the big front door. So we walk up and, and we're just dumbfounded. [00:06:47] We had never imagined what it might look like inside. We'd mostly seen churches from the inside or places that had been made up to be BnBs or something, but we'd never seen somebody's apartment building. But it was like the person who had lived there had just gone out for coffee. The house was completely furnished, with pictures and stuff on the table and stuff on the mantelpiece. [00:07:17] And it was as though somebody was gonna come home later. It hadn't been occupied for a couple of years. The, the previous owner had passed away. But the house was still completely furnished in a very old-fashioned style. [00:07:35] Lori: They fell in love with this apartment right away, even though it was the first one that they looked at. And it had some challenges, like no hot water in the kitchen. [00:07:44] Liz: This apartment was built in the 1300s. It was the palazzo of some nobleman. Our apartment was the servant's quarters. Uh, so some of our neighbors in the other apartments downstairs have much grander places with higher ceilings and fancy stuff. But this is just right for us.  [00:08:07] Lori: They made an offer and negotiated the purchase. Before the closing, Liz and Michael communicated with the sellers, who were the children of the previous owner.  [00:08:17] Liz: We had told them that we would be happy to accept anything they wanted to leave there. They told us that they were gonna take some stuff. [00:08:25] So we, we had no idea what we were going to find when we got there. And when we arrived, there was just about everything that we had seen. [00:08:39] I mean, they left beds, they left dressers, they left armadia. They, they left a laundry detergent. Just everything that was in a home that somebody lived in. So we spent the first couple of weeks going through closets and chests of drawers and finding stuff.  In the attic, over in the corner, all covered with dust, there was a framed picture, like an old-fashioned photograph that looks to me like, like it was Italian Gothic, like Grant Wood had painted American Gothic only in Italy. [00:09:27] And uh, and there was a farmer and his wife. The farmer's wearing a hat. He has a great big mustache. The wife has a tired smile on her face. She has dark hair with the gray beginning to show. It's sort of uncertain how old she is because you can tell she's had a hard life. She might be 36. Uh, she might be 56. [00:10:11] We dusted off this picture and decided that this was Grandma and Grandpa, um, or in Italian, it would be Nonno and Nonna and, and that we were going to, to adopt them as our, our Italian relatives.  We learned that this is Ferdinando and Rosa Baldelli. They would solve the problem of me not having Italian connections. [00:10:45] So we adopted them and put them on our wall. And, uh, we, we ended up having, uh, an absolutely lovely closing with the family that we bought the apartment from, but we, we hid Grandma and Grandpa when they came to look at the apartment and to see what we had done, because we didn't want them to take 'em away. [00:11:08] So ...since then they have come and they have seen that we have given them a place of honor and they don't want them. Um, but we love them. [00:11:24] I mean at first we giggled about it, but then it just sort of became, well, of course, they're looking out for us. They are our, the representation of our connection here. Um, when a new guest comes to the house, we explain who they are because Michael is a, is a portrait artist. And there are a number of other pictures of people on the wall, um, that are illustrations that, that Michael has done. [00:11:55] And, an

    18 min
  3. Jeff's Rum Bottle

    11/24/2021

    Jeff's Rum Bottle

    Credits:  Guest: Jeff Aylswerth Host/Producer: Lori Mortimer Music:  Prigione Eterna - Zealots                                        332697__mseq__trance-gate-a-124   - Looperman          Aurora (Original Mix)       Alleave 159184__symphoid__trance  - Looperman        396684__dbspin__party-background-chatter-real-1    -    Freesound.org      looperman-l-2234076-0205209-stars-lil-uzi-vert-type-melody   -      Looperman

    18 min

  4. 10/29/2021 · BONUS

    Bonus: Ruth's poem "Halloween"

    "Halloween" by Ruth. Read by Bréjean. Production, sound design, and music by Lori Mortimer.  SFX from Freesound.org:  436503__clgood__small-creature-scamper-on-wall.wav 455484__jpeek345__sound-fx-mac-cheese-box-top.mp4 545478__ienba__apple-fall-and-rolling.wav 554312__opticaillusions__sparkly.wav 420390__magdaadga__walking-the-leaves.wav ------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT Seventh grade, age 11. And it was written on 10/20 of 1932.   “Halloween” The autumn has another pleasure, for Halloween is coming soon, When through the leafless trees there shines the great October moon. The spooks all start when darkness falls, the wind howls round the house all night, But 'tis not till near the dawn that the witches take their flight. Then after a night of weird music, these spooks all scamper away, The witches and goblins and fairies go not to return for a year from that day. The only traces remaining are the scattered leaves on the ground, And apples shaken from the trees showed that these imps were around.

    1 min
  5. Ruth's Poetry

    10/27/2021

    Ruth's Poetry

    Bréjean finds a folder of her deceased grandmother's poetry tucked away in a closet and learns that she has a lot more in common with her "prim and proper" grandmother than she thought.  Written, produced, and sound designed by Lori Mortimer. Story editing by Galen Beebe. Mementos audio logo by Martin Austwick. Music & SFX Allie Mine by Blue Dot Sessions Georgia Overdrive by Blue Dot Sessions Pastel de Nata by Blue Dot Sessions 131032__klankbeeld__wind-in-tree-white-birch-01 © Klankbeeld  Freesound.org Birds Sound Effect by BurghRecords  420390__magdaadga__walking-the-leaves  Freesound.org  looperman-l-1440756-0080599-simonecampete-strings-of-the-sun-pizzicato looperman-l-1440756-0080594-simonecampete-strings-of-the-sun looperman-l-1440756-0080595-simonecampete-strings-of-the-sun-2 looperman-l-0207475-0195342-milk-seduction.wav looperman-l-0747210-0174488-82-bpm-acoustic-guitar Follow the show @MementosPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mementospodcast Follow Lori at @mortaymortay on Twitter and Instagram.  ---------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] LORI: Mementos sometimes what you really keep is on the inside. BRÉJEAN: I feel like I’m very different from my grandmother. But am I?  She had such an image that she kept up. She was very prim and proper. You know, she had perfectly coiffed hair, and she had to have her face on, and she had to have her jewelry on.  And my grandfather was buttoned down shirts, ties, jackets when you went to visit him. They were not to be seen even in private or in public when they were not wearing those, you know, what felt like uniforms of the, um, prim and properness of it all.  In her home, you know, there was the matching bedroom set, and then in the dining room, the table and the, the armoire and the buffet, and the chairs, like everything was all about how it looked. It was a little three bedroom ranch. All the rooms were kind of small. But what really struck you when you went to see her was when you walked into the living room, with the green and gold furniture – ’cause that was her color scheme – right over the fireplace, was a giant picture of my grandmother. Posed, sitting there, stately, lording over this home. And that was just showing that she was really, she was the one in control of that home.  And all the while she had this wild side of her that she couldn't talk about or share. [00:02:07] LORI: Welcome back to Mementos. I’m Lori Mortimer, the host and producer of the show. If you’re listening for the first time, thank you. It’s great to have you here.  This week, we have our first grandma episode! My guest, Bréjean, is going to tell us about a memento that’s helped her see her grandmother in an entirely new light.  Just a heads up that there’s some content in this episode that’s not suitable for kids.  Bréjean lives in the U.S. with her wife their cats. They’re also the parents to two adult unschooled children who have long been out of the house.  Her story starts in 2012, after her mother passed away.  [00:02:50] BRÉJEAN: And when that happened, I went to her house to go through her belongings. And there was like a little linen closet in the hallway. Now, this house belonged to her parents. And when her parents died, she moved into the house. So a lot of the belongings in the house were from my grandparents, Ruth and Sal.  So I went through the belongings, and I went through that closet, and way on the top shelf, underneath some towels, was a brown envelope. And it said my grandmother's name on it. And it said “poetry.” And sure enough, I saw what my mother had told me many, many years ago when I was a little, that my grandmother was a poet. [00:03:37] LORI: Even though Bréjean knew her grandmother was a poet, she’d never seen any of the poetry and they never talked about it.  The poems had been stored carefully and neatly, in chronological order, in an envelope and with a label that matched the way Bréjean’s grandfather stored all the important papers in that house. Her early writings when she was little were all to do with nature. And they were very, um, sort of faith based. It was a lot of mention of God in her poetry, but a lot of mention of the beauty of nature, which really spoke to me because I'm pagan. So I found my spirituality in nature, and I found that really interesting that my grandmother, as a young girl, felt the same way. [00:04:34]  BRÉJEAN: February 8th, 1933, Ruth, age 12. A poem called “A Tree.” Have you ever seen anything As lovely as a tree? Anything more useful Or more beautiful to see? They are messengers of God, Who sent them from above To help us and remind us Of the good God and his love And so we should not forget When we look up and see The power and beauty of the Lord All revealed in a tree Isn't that wonderful? And I love that because as a pagan, one of our holidays is called Mabon, and Mabon is when we hug trees. So we go out, and everyone finds a tree in the yard and communes with it and hugs it. And I can just picture my grandmother writing this poem, sitting in her yard, looking up at the trees. And she was inspired to write a poem about them. And I just felt such a connection. ’Cause I could see myself having written exactly the same poem at her age.  The mention of God, I would have expressed that differently, but the wonder and the sacredness and the spirituality was the same for me as it was for her. And in that way, I just felt like, Hey, I knew you. I knew you when you were little. I was you when you were little and I was little, and that is a really wonderful thing for me.  It's almost like genetics. It's almost like we all have that in our genes, in my family. And my children do, too. Like, they're very connected to nature. So those are the ways in which we keep those connections going through our ancestors. And we don't even know that were doing it. I didn't even know that my grandmother had these interests. And there they were this whole time in an envelope in the top of her closet. There were so many years where there was no writings of hers at all. So clearly she was raising her family. She was doing all of that stuff. And then she, uh, entered the workforce later on in life. And then she rediscovered her, her love of writing.  [00:07:08] LORI: In the envelope, Bréjean found poems that very much sounded like the adult version of young Ruth, with reflections on nature and family.  BRÉJEAN: And then, and then I found 18 pages of an erotic poem that my grandmother wrote.  Hello, grandma. [Laughter.] [00:07:44] LORI: Hello, indeed. I will say that what Bréjean refers to as an erotic poem is truly porn.  The poem is written in the first person. And the protagonist is an 18-year-old girl out in the workforce for the first time.  BRÉJEAN: “Diary of a French Steno” I am a young stenographer. My age is just 18. And I will frankly tell you of the things I've heard and seen. The men have always called me a very pretty girl. They say my form is perfect. My mother named me Pearl.   And then on we go. [00:08:23] LORI: Each stanza tells a story about how Pearl pinched, pulled, groped. Constantly sexually harassed at a series of jobs. And every time she defended herself from these assaults, she lost her job. Eventually, Pearl has had enough. And she decides at her next interview, she's gonna take control of the situation. BRÉJEAN:  At last, I have decided to take things as they came, And if I lost another job, I'd have myself to blame. And then she proceeded to have this really sexual relationship with the man that’s her boss. Like, she was victimized by these men until she turned it around and said, alright, I'm gonna use this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna look at my sexuality as a power that I'm gonna take charge of this, you know, relationship. Kind of like, if this is gonna to happen to me anyway, I'm gonna own it. And I'm gonna take control of it. [00:09:41] LORI: The last half of the poem describes Pearl and her boss getting it on, over and over. BRÉJEAN: She goes on and on and on and on. With words for body parts that I never knew. I would never have believed that my grandmother would have written that. Especially just sort of her outward appearance being so perfect all the time. And she had this secret side of herself at a time where, certainly women could not be exploring their sexuality. [00:10:38] LORI: After the long poem, the envelope contained a short story. And that revealed another connection between Bréjean and her grandmother.  BRÉJEAN: It was queer writing. You know, my grandmother wrote about, uh, experiences with other women, which I found fascinating because I'm a lesbian and both my children are queer. [00:11:03] LORI: It’s the story of a high school girl named Jan who’s exploring her sexuality with other teens. BRÉJEAN: Jan had a very explicit encounter with, with her sister named Helen. But the way that she wrote it was very much … it was like a sexual fantasy between two women. And I don't think that the incestual piece of that was the point. I think the point was -- at least that's my takeaway now -- as I'm looking at this thinking that somebody who was repressed because of her religion or her upbringing or society or whatever was happening around her, like this was a way that she could talk about having a lesbian, um, experience with somebody, in -- I don't know if I would use the word safe -- but in a way that she would understand.  [00:11:59] LORI: In the envelope, along with the short story, Bréjean found an adult porn magazine from the same era.  She sees a connection between the fantasy world of Ruth’s story and the material world of the magazine.  [00:12:12] BRÉJEAN: I really think that my grandmother was bisexual. I feel like that magazine was my grandmother's way of being able to access images of women, naked women, who are

    19 min

  6. 10/20/2021 · BONUS

    October update: More episodes are coming soon

    Mementos doesn't have a new episode dropping this week, but there are a few more in production for this fall. Lori is hard at work on them and is making sure the sound design is top notch -- your patience will be rewarded, so keep watching this feed!  Thank you! -- Lori    Feathersoft by Blue Dot Sessions

    3 min
  7. Jared's Flock

    10/06/2021

    Jared's Flock

    Jared meets his match in an aggressive little Senegal parrot named Cricket, who ultimately charms Jared and changes his life for the better. Jared keeps a large scarlet macaw feather as a memento of the relationships in his life that led to his becoming a "flock leader."  Mementos Season 1, Episode 5: Jared's Flock Guest: Jared H. Visit www.MementosPodcast.com to see some photos of the memento in this episode.  Follow the show @MementosPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mementospodcast Follow Lori at @mortaymortay on Twitter and Instagram  CREDITS Lori Mortimer – Host, Sound Designer, Producer Jared H. – Guest (Jared has a gaming podcast called Parrot Talk.) Galen Beebe – Story Editor Alyssa Duvak – Social Media Music: Kenneth Donahue for “Good Boy” Martin Austwick for the Mementos audio logo “Borough,” “Pedalrider,” “Let Go Gecko,” and “Checkered Blue” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue). looperman-l-2789900-0179984-roddy-rich-x-ynba-type-loop looperman-l-1186967-0194474-piano-melody-755-abelouis TRANSCRIPT Mementos Season 1, Episode 5: Jared's Flock Lori: Mementos. Sometimes what you really keep is on the inside.  Jared: So I, uh, I walked into Emily's family house then various in the kitchen, and he's just staring at you with these watching every movement you make. She goes and gets some, opens the cage and you know, he's, he's able to fly. He's got his feathers. They're not clipped, but he sits just on her and he just stares. He would fluff up a little bit and he puff his wings out a little bit, kind of get a little huffy at ya and he just make himself look about two or three times bigger. And it wasn't like he was looking at you more as looking through when he wanted to be aggressive. The first introduction of me and Cricket was him turning around to bite my finger and making me bleed. He was, he was a demon. [00:01:10]  Lori: Welcome to Mementos. I’m Lori Mortimer.  You know, it makes sense that people like to talk about mementos that remind them of someone who’s passed away. But it’s also nice to hear somebody talk about a memento that has deep meaning to their own personal journey. Today we’re gonna hear about a memento that's tied to that little Senegal parrot, Cricket. Cricket isn’t very big. He stands about 9 inches tall. And he weighs no more five or six ounces.  But that little guy made big impact on my guest’s life.  Be sure to listen all the way to the end today because I’ve dropped something special after the credits. Ok. On to the story.  [00:01:54]  Jared: My name is Jared. I’m from central Wisconsin,  Lori: Wisconsin, huh? Guess what Jared does for a living. Jared: I make cheese.  Jared: Um, yeah, I know very Wisconsinite of me. [Laughter] Lori: Also very Monty Python. Monty Python clip: Blessed are the cheese-makers!  Lori: And even though Jared humored me when I barraged him with cheese-related questions,  Jared: uh, I mean, Parmesan is Parmesan, no matter what, uh, acidity level. Lori: That's not what he came to talk about.  [00:02:25]  Jared: The object that I wanted to talk about today, which I actually brought with us, is a giant macaw tail feather. Specifically, it's a scarlet macaw feather. It has quite significant meaning to me because of the impact parrots have made in my life.  The tail feather of a scarlet macaw -- some people don't really know how big they actually are -- it's actually the size of my forearm, believe it or not.  Lori: Scarlet macaws are the big red and blue parrots. Like the ones you see on a pirate's shoulder. But Jared's not a pirate, mateys. He's an air force veteran, a blessed cheesemaker, and he's here to tell us about…. Jared: My journey into fatherhood of, of parrots.  [00:03:09]  Lori: The story starts with little Cricket. About seven or eight years ago, Jared was dating a young woman named Emily. She was in college nearby. Cricket was Emily’s her pet. But he lived across the state with her parents. So she asked Jared if it would be okay if Cricket moved in with him, so that she could see him more often. Jared: I was a little naïve, just because I'm dog whisperer and a cat whisperer. Like, every animal loves me. When he actually bit me on that first go around, I was like, all right, this might be a little bit tougher than it was going to be. And, uh, I kind of took it upon myself that I was like, I was gonna make him my friend. Just simply because no animal hates me.  [00:03:57]  Lori: Jared's mission: Win Cricket over. Codename: Parrot persuasion. Jared: The way I had it set up was I had a long couch, and then in the corner was Cricket with his cage. And then I had a loveseat, and I would sit next to his cage. And I'd just sit there and chat with Cricket and be like, Hey buddy, what's up? I would cut up these little strips of paper, and then I'd kind of fold them in half until it became like a little scratching stick. And put it through his cage, and I'd scratch his noggin. Or I'd open the cage and I'd give him like a blackberry or a blueberry or some kind of treat. And I would slowly reinforce that, Hey, I'm not a bad guy. I'm here to make your day, buddy.  I got some pretty nasty bites. ’Cause, you know, I was like, all right, I can go in for a step up. And no, not even close. Like he definitely let me have at one time. And I was like, no, he was not ready. And so, you know, that's where I got my pretty big scar on my thumb, where he tried to gnaw it off. [00:05:01] Lori: Jared built up trust with Cricket over about four or five months, but he still hadn't turned the corner. And then Jared got the flu and was home for several days in a row.  Jared: And I worked very intensely with Cricket, kind of, you know, letting him out, letting him just free roam around the house.  And finally, on the third day, when I was finally starting to feel a little bit better, he crawled up and sat on my shoulder. And then parrots will do this weird thing where they'll turn around, and then they'll put their head in their back, which is basically like their way of sleeping. And he ended up doing that while I was sick at home. And that was kind of like, okay, he's now my friend. [00:05:41]  Lori: Cricket and Jared really bonded. And like any roommates, they learned each other's routines and their quirks.  Jared: He knew little phrases. Um, I drink a lot of fizzy water, and I like, I like my sodas every once in a while. And he learned the opening of a can of soda. One day I was sitting in my bedroom, and all of a sudden I hear that [sound effect of can opening]. And I’m like, Emily's not here. Wait, what? And then I, and I look out and there's Cricket, just kind of sitting there. And I'm like, all right, buddy. I would come home at night. I always worked second or third shift. He’d kind of fluff up. I'd hear him fluffing, and he'd make it a little squeak. And I’d open the door. And then he'd come on top of the cage. He would actually fly to my shoulder and hang out with me. There are countless nights where I'd be watching TV and he'd be on my shoulder. He'd be on my knee. And he would just fall asleep for like an hour or two. And I’d be like, all right, Cricket, it's actually time for you to go to bed, bud. You know, so it was, it was just the nightly relationship that we ended up having that really cemented how much I would love this little guy. [00:06:54]  So I ended up kind of losing Cricket and, uh, and Emily, when she went away on an internship. Our lives were just kind of deviating in different paths. Like, I was very sad for Emily, but I was, like, very sad that I no longer had my feathery friend at home. You know, there's this bird that would just. Jared, hi, welcome. You know, Welcome home, buddy. It's like, Hey, you come over here and you fly over my shoulder. You know, we’d eat breakfast together. He'd steal a noodle off of my fork as I’m eating. This guy was a big part of my life, even when she wasn't there. So, like, the loss of a loved one, as well as the loss of a very, very close animal was just absolutely devastating. [00:07:55]  When Cricket and Emily kind of left, I was by myself. It was kind of my transition from, from Emily and Cricket to, uh, this feathery void that I had in my soul.  And so a gentleman had a scarlet macaw who needed a new home. She was a beautiful sassy macaw. I visited her about three times, and I almost adopted her, but she just would've been too big for my tiny little apartment.  Lori: On one of the visits, Scarlet's owner gave Jared one of her tail feathers. And that feather is the memento he's talking about today.  [00:08:18]  Jared: The reason why I kept the feather was it was kind of like a nice little introduction into being a flock leader, is what I call myself. And that was kind of like my first step into the world of parrots by myself. Emily and I were very, very close. We had a hardcore relationship, you know, over parrots and, and my love for parrots and how I took care of Cricket. When I transitioned into, um, going off on my own, it kind of reminded me of taking that first step to where I was reaching out, trying to, trying to find a flock of my own.  [00:09:20]  Lori: Bonding with Cricket and visiting Scarlet really sealed the deal for Jared. He left the nest and set out to find his flock.  Jared: I ended up adopting an old man by the name of Harley. Uh, then I, you know, he was looking sad. So I was like, all right, I've got to get the young buck for the old bull, you know, rejuvenate him a little bit. That's where Mr. Blue Nibbles the Third came into play. That is actually his official name, Mr. Blue Nibbles the Third. Blue ’cause he's blue. Nibbles cause he nibbles on everything. And the Third, because he's my third parrot.  Lori: Unfortunately, Harley started having seizures and eventually passed away. Jared: Blue had this like sad, sad Panda look on his

    17 min
  8. Cherie's Letters

    09/22/2021

    Cherie's Letters

    Cherie inherits a stack of 33 letters, written by her grandfather, who died during the Korean War, and who Cherie's family never talked about. Before receiving the letters, she knew almost nothing about him. She hadn't even seen a picture of him. But the letters unveil who he was and the fateful decisions he made that affected not only his life but still affect her life today.  Larry Hood’s page on the Korean War Project website. (While talking with Cherie, I misspoke and called it the Korean War Memorial website. It's the Korean War Project. My apologies to the folks there!) Season 1, Episode 4: Crystal's Letters Guest: Cherie Louise Turner Visit www.MementosPodcast.com to see some photos of the memento in this episode.  Follow the show @MementosPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mementospodcast Follow Lori at @mortaymortay on Twitter and Instagram.  CREDITS: Lori Mortimer – Host, Sound Designer, Producer Cherie Turner – Guest Charles Gustine – Voice Actor Galen Beebe – Story Editor  Alyssa Duvak – Social Media Music:  Micolai by Blue Dot Sessions Looperman:  looperman-l-1186967-0179585-piano-melody-654-abelouis looperman-l-2431466-0230476-sunset-piano-melody looperman-l-4487063-0257366-lofi-piano-really-chill looperman-l-2392682-0213471-classic-mellow-piano -------------------- TRANSCRIPT Mementos Episode S1:E4 Cherie’s Letters [00:00:00] CHERIE: One of the reasons that he was so aggressive about putting himself in danger is because he just wanted to get back home. And that was his fastest way to get back home. And it ended up doing the very thing that made it, this short track, which is that it was super, super dangerous and you're at risk of dying. And that's what happened. LORI: Welcome to Mementos. I’m Lori Mortimer. If you listened to the last episode, Crystal’s Hymn, you’ll know that it was a story about a grandfather. Today’s episode is also about a grandfather, but the two episodes could not be more different.  In this episode, my guest is going to tell us about a grandfather who she knew nothing about until just a few years ago. Cherie has been able to bring back to life, in a sense, her grandfather, who died many years ago and who had been lost to the sands of time.  And she learned that he made some fateful decisions a long time ago that not only affected him but also still affect her life today. [00:01:30] CHERIE: My name is Cherie Louise Turner. And I’m originally from Goleta, California, which is near Santa Barbara. LORI: Cherie’s story starts in 2010, when she got a phone call from her aunt.  CHERIE: She informed me that my grandmother had passed, after several bouts of cancer. And she had left me some things in her will. Which I was very surprised about because I really hadn’t spoken much to her um, in probably over 20 years.  [00:02:00] So I received this stack of 33 letters that my grandfather, Larry Hood, had written to my grandmother while he was in the Army and then when he went off to the Korean War. Before I got these letters -- I got them when I was 40 years old -- I really didn’t think much of my grandfather. Or I didn’t give him much thought. I had maybe known that he died in a war. I wasn't even ever clear on which war it was. He went into the Army on the 4th of April, 1951, and he died on June 29th, 1952. He wasn't even overseas for but a few months. So by the time I was cognizant of this missing person, he'd been gone for such a long time, and nobody really talked about him because my grandmother had already been married -- remarried -- twice. And so this was my first opportunity to learn anything about him. [00:03:03] LORI: One by one, these letters unveil the pieces of Larry’s life story. Most of them are written to Cherie’s grandmother Mary and to Cherie’s father Gary, who was just little at the time. He was between 4 and 5 years of age. And yes, this family has rhyming names: Larry and Mary, and their son Gary. In the letters, Larry talks about his everyday life in the Army. They start when he was in training camp in California, and then take him to a stop to Japan and then on to the front lines in North Korea. [00:03:30] CHERIE: I don't know how he ended up in the Army. I don't get the sense that he was real gung-ho about it. I think he probably got enlisted.  And from all of the letters, all he wanted to do was come back home. LORI: You can tell that Larry was especially focused on getting home sooner rather than later.  CHARLES (as LARRY): Dear Mary and Gary, Tomorrow morning at 3 a.m, I leave by ship for Korea. I get 20 percent more pay in Korea and the full G.I. Bil. The way the rotation system is now workin’, I will get home twice as fast as I would if I stayed here in Japan. CHERIE: The other thing about these, coming from the Army, is there are just some basic things that you miss. You know, you miss your family. Every single letter, he writes, tell Gary I love him, tell him how much I miss him. LORI: He didn’t just miss them, he stayed in communication and supported them. He stayed in communication and supported them. He asked how they were, and he followed up on the things they told him in their letters to him. And he expressed a lot of concern about Mary's well-being. [00:04:47] CHARLES (as LARRY): You say for me to take care of myself. It sounds like you're the one who should take it easy. Your mother wrote me you only weigh a hundred two pounds. So, gal, you better get on the ball and start taking your shots again. Especially now that the windy season is startin’. You're going to blow away if you don't. So honey, write me what you're doin’ because sometimes I wonder and worry about you. [00:05:24] LORI: Through the letters, Cherie got a surprise about her grandparents' relationship, which makes Larry's support of Mary even more remarkable.  CHERIE: He and my grandmother had been divorced before he went to war. They got married when they were 17 years old. So they were children. And when you look at the dates it seems pretty obvious that they got married because she got pregnant. [00:05:45] But he’s just so sweet to her the whole time, and he talks about how she would always be very special to him. CHARLES (as LARRY): You'll always mean a lot more to me than just an ex-wife because we were together and did too much to ever forget. Even if it wasn't for the fact that Gary is part of us both. So, baby doll, take care of yourself, and tell Gary that I never stop thinking of him.  And naturally, when I think of him, I also think of you. [00:06:27] LORI: You know, not surprisingly, Cherie has opened and read through these letters many times since she got them. But one time, not that long ago, she found something new when she was trying to put one of the letters back in its envelope. CHERIE: The envelope felt kind of heavy after I took the letter out and I just, I kind of gave it a second thought, but not much. And then I was reading through the letter, and I go to put it back, and it won't go in very well. And I realize that there are two photographs in here. They’re the only photos I've ever seen of this man. Which is just kind of miraculous to me. [00:07:00] LORI: Think about that. She’d never even seen a picture of her grandfather before. And when Cherie saw these photos, she was struck by just how young he was.  CHERIE: In my mind, he’s an old person. But he died when he was 23. LORI: The photos also captured the bleakness of his surroundings and what he was living through while stationed in North Korea. CHERIE: Of course they’re black and white, so like, there’s no color to them. And you can see it's a very desolate landscape where he is. And you can see hills. Um, there’s a lot of rocks. There are no trees whatsoever. And here they are guarding this post. CHARLES (as LARRY): Except for the guard duty, half the night, we don't have hardly anything to do, but every so often we have to go on patrols of the Chinese lines to see where and what they are doing. Goin’ on those patrols, I can't say I like too well. As far as I'm concerned, they can stay on their hill, and we'll stay on ours. It gets me that so many fellas have to get hurt and go through so much just to take one of these worthless hills. I just hope I get outta here before too many more months because every week seems like a month itself. [00:08:18] CHERIE: He talks about how they do live in tents, and it snows. You know, they were digging into the snow in the hillside to get themselves into a warmer situation. That was just for insulation. Because it was so freezing cold. He said it would take them about an hour in the morning to put their boots on because everything was frozen. CHARLES (as LARRY): More guys have left here because of pneumonia or frozen hands or feet than those who have gotten wounded or shot. I got frostbite in January, and my knees are still bothering me from the cold that has set in them. I’ll be home sometime this summer. I’ll have at least 30 days’ leave, which I’m going to spend at the beach. The sun will feel so good after havin’ spent the winter here. [00:09:13] LORI: After getting frostbite and suffering with the lingering effects, Larry makes a fateful, but consistent, decision. CHARLES (as LARRY): I could have gotten off the front lines because of it, but I would have been moved to a rear area where I would have to stay twice as long. [00:09:33] CHERIE: I, I have a lot of respect for the military and the things that they do. But when you’re reading about a single person’s existence and their experiences, it also can make you feel like, here was this man who was full of life, and he didn’t come back. And it really does make you wonder, was that life worth losing?  LORI: The letters are kind of an extended family, treasure trove for Cherie because she learned that other family members were very supportive of Larry while he was over

    20 min
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About

Personal stories about keepsakes as containers of memories, emotions, and human connection. Mementos is a member of Hub & Spoke Audio Collective. www.hubspokeaudio.org

Information

  • Creator
    Lori Mortimer
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Lori Mortimer/Mementos Podcast
  • Show Website
    Mementos

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