Mementos

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
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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 th...

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.
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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.”...

"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

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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.

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

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

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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 -- fal...