Memoir – Page 2 – Alysse Aallyn

Bravest Thing I Ever Did

THE BRAVEST THING I EVER DID Right after we were married, my husband and his mother went into the business of renovating aging Philadelphia buildings into modern apartments. Toss sank all his money into this endeavor. As the partnership progressed, a lot of problems with my mother-in-law surfaced. She was personally combative and talked continually…
Read more: Bravest Thing I Ever Did
On Reading the Alumni Directory

ON READING THE ALUMNI DIRECTORY Surprised How few of us have made it. The years are quiet The years are far between. Through interstices fall Class clowns The sluts, the giant Nobodies The possessed; hunted Now as they were then; “address unknown” “Still lives with Mom” “Religious cult” “Deadbeat” “Moved…nowhere.” My bloodmate’s unmarried would we…
Read more: On Reading the Alumni Directory
How I Became a Dancer

HOW I BECAME A DANCER In the spring of 1975 I quit my job as an administrative assistant to a group of Baltimore architects and gave myself an extended vacation in Maine. I was divorced and very frustrated with the dating scene in Baltimore which seemed oriented around married older career men and young, hopeful,…
Read more: How I Became a Dancer
How I Became a Dancer

HOW I BECAME A DANCER In the spring of 1975 I quit my job as an administrative assistant to a group of Baltimore architects and gave myself an extended vacation in Maine. I was divorced and very frustrated with the dating scene in Baltimore which seemed oriented around married older career men and young, hopeful,…
Read more: How I Became a Dancer
Learning to Write

I always wanted to be a writer but writing felt almost too intimate ever to be my career. Other people didn’t seem to like it when I told the truth and always tried pushing me in a different direction. I kept a diary from the time I was nine years old and journaling became necessary…
Read more: Learning to Write
Remembering my Father

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION Famously, my father was a conscientious objector. He wrote all about it in his book, Not By Might. He grew up in a home where his mother had divested herself of the religion she was born with by becoming a member of the Church of the New Jerusalem, a follower of the writings…
Read more: Remembering my Father
Mom

CULTURE AND MY MOTHER Most people considered my mother not just the nicest, the most beautiful, but the most cultivated person they had ever met. She said “tomahtoes”, giving many words their English pronunciation; she floated through my childhood in a haze of elegant gardening, French cuisine (she made her own mayonnaise) and general gorgeousness.…
Read more: Mom
Morocco 1961

Jan. 15 – 1961 –Startling news. My father is going to quit his job and join the American Friends Service Committee! We are all going overseas to French West Africa to help the poor refugees who have nowhere to go. Tune in! We are having a party on the 20th and then we sell everything!…
Read more: Morocco 1961

Category: Memoir