Recycling the Eaton's Catalogue

While the Eaton's Catalogue was used by thousands of Canadians as a mail order service, they found alternative uses for it past its "due date".  Here are a few purposes that the "Homesteader's Bible" served:

1.  Gordie Howe talked about how he used to strap a catalogue to each of his shins and use it as goalie pads during hockey games with his young friends.

2.  New Canadian immigrants pored over the Eaton's Catalogue to learn English.  The words, accompanied by drawings, and later photographs, helped them to learn the language.

3.  Young girls cut out silhouettes and used them as dolls; they cut out clothing to dress their dolls.

4.  Children used the catalogue drawings or photographs for school projects or scrapbooks.

5.  Pages could be torn from the catalogue, bunched up and put between the walls as insulation.  Newspapers served the same purpose, something my husband discovered in my in-law's cottage walls.

6.  One room schoolhouses used the catalogues as reading material.  Teachers cut out the letters to make alphabet books.

7.  Homesteaders pasted the pages on their walls as decorations.

8.  Rural residents used the catalogue as a cultural link to the outside world.

9.  Teenage boys used the swimsuit section as an early Sports Illustrated.

10.  The catalogue served as reading material while sitting on the toilet in the outhouse.

11.  Pages served as toilet paper as well.

12.  Homemakers made patterns and sewed articles of clothing from the fashions in the catalogue.

Eaton's Catalogue circa 1948-1949 courtesy http://www.lakecountrymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Eatons-of-Canada-catalogue.jpg.

How to Find Inspiration for Your Poetry

"Ideas come from  everything." (Alfred Hitchcock)

As I said in a recent post, keep a journal of ideas to serve as inspiration for your poetry.  Write down your emotions and descriptions.  The Writers Relief website recommends keeping a file for newspaper and magazine clippings, sketches and quotes to use as inspiration for your writing http://writersrelief.com/blog/2008/03/poetry-finding-your-inspiration/.

Wikihow suggests visiting a place that can serve as a setting for a poem.  Why not take a trip to a forest or garden, waterfalls or river?  "Find the natural rhythm of everyday life," suggests Wikihow (http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Inspiration-for-Poetry).  Use all five senses to take in the experience.  Brainstorm words and phrases to describe the experience ex. active verbs and vivid nouns.

Nature isn't the only source of inspiration.  Visit your local park or cafe.  Take a bus or train ride. Write down your observations.  You'd be amazed at how underneath the ordinary lies the extraordinary.

Keep your sense on alert at all times, even in your own home.  Keep a notebook at your bedside to record dreams or ideas that come to you in the middle of the night.  Go online to find writing prompts ex. "What if?" scenarios.  Scan the newspaper and magazine headlines for ideas.  Study paintings or photographs.  My poem "Sunset over the Ice" is based on a famous painting by Frederic Church. Study your scrapbooks; maybe a vacation photo will spark a memory.

Perhaps you have a family member who inspires you.  I wrote a poem about my husband's grandma who survived the war called "On Prussian Plains" which I read at her funeral in 2007.  Think of a special spot you like to visit.  I wrote a poem about a bridge that Rob and I like to stand on when we visit St. Mary's.  Study old postcards.  I found a postcard called "Greetings from Holly Beach" which spurred me on to write a poem about Hurricane Rita.  There's a map on the wall of my in-law's cottage called "The Ghostfleet of Long Point".  I penned a poem of the same name.

Maybe an injustice has taken place which has moved you to write a poem.  Oprah Winfrey talked about a young black mother of ten being gunned down on her way home from work as she searched in a ditch for her wallet.  Her story inspired me to write "Justice for Johnnie Mae".  An occasion is also a good reason to write a poem.  When my cousin Jeff got married I did a bit of research on his new bride and wrote a poem about the new couple.  

Note:  For more inspiration, read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

http://imgarcade.com/1/pretty-sunset-pictures-with-trees/