One Little Moment

One thing I try to teach my students when they are learning to write a personal narrative is to just tell a little story. Don't write a long list of every single thing that happened. Just choose one moment or experience and describe it. Here is an example of this--a story I wrote one period while my students were also writing...

           How many years have I been driving cars? Let’s do the math: 57-16= 41 years. Plus, for many years before that, I drove tractors. My point here is that I have a lot of experience in pumping gas into vehicles with an internal combustion engine.

            But, I felt like I’d dropped into another universe on that Saturday afternoon in Swan Valley, Idaho. I’d pulled into the gas station and got my ATM card out. It was a glorious Indian Summer day. Aspen leaves glittered gold on the hillsides. There was a gentle breeze. I slid my card through the slot, pushed the buttons to select the desired octane, and then the beeping started. It was an exceptionally irritating beep, too. Loud, persistent, piercing the pleasant afternoon ambiance; and I couldn’t get it to stop! Nor could I get any gas to move into my car.

             I looked all over the face of the pump. The screen said, “Push to start pump” in white electronic letters, all the while that obnoxious beeping continued. I pushed every button I could find---nada—still beeping! So, I hit the “cancel card” button. I examined it all again. Carefully I re-did the entire sequence. “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” Still, no gas! I cancelled a second time.

            “Okay,” I thought. “There has to be an answer here.”  Ah…Finally I saw it. Up above all the pump handles and hoses, there was a yellow sticker saying, “Push Here to Start.” So, I slid my card, pushed my choices on the keypad, lifted the nozzle, chose my octane, and “Pushed Here to Start.”  It was a miracle! The numbers on the pump sprang to life and gas finally flowed into my car.