1960 Memories and "Wild" Book Review

Dateline,: Topeka, Kansas, 1960. I was four.

“Hey Daddy, Can I borrow your hammer?”, me, sheepish, with my partner-in-crime, a neighborhood friend just behind me.

“Why do you need a hammer?”, sitting in the armchair, reading the paper.

“We are going to break open rocks and look for gold!”

Daddy retrieves the hammer, “Alright, when you find the gold, bring it to me.”

I didn’t question why Daddy wanted our gold, those were his terms. It was the adventure we wanted, so off we went.

We spent the afternoon breaking up many rocks. Found no gold (so all we owed Daddy was returning the hammer). Adventure we found, the excitement of the search.

Reenactment

Memories are a funny business, like dreams. They can be unreliable, get hazy with age, segments drop out. Perhaps we insert what we think belongs in those missing pieces. Someone from the same scene may have a different take on it.
In her memoir “Wild”, did Cheryl Strayed do some filling in? It was published (2012) years after her 1995 hike. There are plenty of 1-star reviews picking her story apart. Yes, she made some questionable choices in life (don't we all?). And could have used a bit more planning setting out on such a perilous hike. But she definitely learned, and grew, from all that. And she shared what she gained with us.
But even if she fictionalized any of her book (rounded off her memories' edges), I loved it and at the end, was not ready to leave her world on the trail (I am an avid hiker, though primarily through day hikes).
Her story was of finding one’s self. She threaded memories from throughout her life through the book, making it more of an introspective journey than a hiking how-to guide book, weaving lines from literature and songs she loved along with the flashbacks.

Her memories were a part of her. She worked from them.

She succeeded.

I shared my earliest memory here in a previous blog post. I have a few other memories from my 4 year old self. I am sure we all do, so I won’t bore you with them (unless interested, in the comments).

But like Ms. Strayed, I do want to reflect on them, and prospect for the gold I hope to find in them.

(First posted this 2023-07-26 on my Taylor Patterns website)