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October 30, 2009
Write your own story
Eppel hopes her new book encourages others.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Not surprisingly, Cissie Eppel, founding president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia, is interested in her family history. She's published two books on the topic: one on her in-law's family, in 1992, and one on her own family, in 2005. Her most recent publication is a 39-page booklet called Before the Memories Fade: A Glimpse into the Past. She sent a copy to the Jewish Independent with a note saying, "Perhaps your readers might be encouraged to record their memories, to compare and evaluate the way it was 'then and now.'"
Eppel grew up in Bradford, England, in the 1920s and Before the Memories Fade really does offer but a glimpse into her early years. The relevance of the short recollections extends beyond life in England, as Eppel, 86, has written about everyday things like the games she and her siblings played as children, some of the hardships people had to endure in those days and other routine aspects of life. She notes in the first chapter, "Present day's society has progressed from yesteryear to current times, where all the state-of-the-art conveniences are taken for granted, as well as being considered a necessity."
From washing clothes to cooking dinner to listening to the radio (the "wireless"), pretty much everything was more difficult – and dangerous – in the early part of the 20th century.
"Our first wireless was powered by acid-filled batteries," writes Eppel. " These batteries (accumulators) were special glass receptacles holding approximately a quart mixture of sulphuric acid and distilled water. It was the responsibility of the younger members of the family to take the dead batteries to a store to be recharged, having to be very careful not to spill the acid."
This risk was on top of that required to get the radio in the first place: "The family's first wireless was acquired by saving coupons, which were given in packets of cigarettes. The purchase of a wireless would not have been as expensive as the cost to the health of my father and eldest brother, considering the number of Black Cat cigarettes which they smoked in order to collect the number of required coupons."
Eppel's sense of humor, concise writing style and endearing drawings, which accompany most of the chapters, make Before the Memories Fade a charming booklet, but she isn't looking for readership necessarily. In addition to the note she sent to the Independent, Eppel writes in her introduction, "Anecdotes are an important element of our heritage to be shared and commemorated by everyone." In Chapter 1, she responds to a friend's question: "'How do you go about writing a book?' My reply was, 'Begin with one sentence, a few sentences make a paragraph, write a few paragraphs to formulate a chapter, assemble the chapters and, ultimately, you have written a book.' Life, it would seem, is a volume for any person to recount, whether orally or in print."
Eppel concludes, "Record the memories before they begin to fade. They may be of interest to those who are curious about the 'olden days.'"
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