Rituals and Traditions
In the first novel I wrote, The Chieftains of South Boston, the entire story takes place in only eight days. With The Mahoneys of West Seattle, it’s almost a year and a half. That left me enough room to build in some family rituals and traditions that could be repeated at least once. Originally, I intended to have about six of them but settled on four. They are the anniversary adventures of Matthew and Anne, movie night, Christmas at Goat Creek Lodge, and Saint Boushoney Day.
The Importance of Traditions
Every family has traditions that are repeated, whether from week to week, or year to year. They can span decades and even generations. While the traditions themselves can remain unchanging (staying at the same campground every July Fourth or visiting the grandparents every Christmas), people in the family, and the relationships among them, will change and grow so that the shared experience will be different. Each time we reenact rituals and traditions, we bring something new to them—ourselves.
While our lives can be thought of as moving in a linear way, traditions, like calendars, occur cyclically. In that sense, they can provide a comforting constant, fixed points on our timelines, occasions that allow us to renew our connections in a familiar way and adjust to the changes in our lives and the lives of others.
A Special Way to Celebrate Anniversaries
That’s what I wanted to capture in this second novel. It begins with Matthew and Anne purportedly plotting a bank robbery. It’s something of a game for them, while also being the most private of all rituals and a very odd way of renewing their commitment to each other. In a sense, it could be considered a way of recalibrating their marriage.
The first enactment at the record store ends up failing. The second one at the Titanic exhibit looks to be headed down a similar path but takes an unexpected turn, with mixed results, although mostly positive. It’s only in the third occurrence of their ritual, which happens off-camera, where they have a clear win, suggesting that they’re working together well, they’re in sync as a couple, at least for the time being.
Movie night is a more public event and provides a ritual for the neighborhood. I got the idea from a real-life backyard movie gathering that took place regularly in the Arbor Heights neighborhood of West Seattle.
Copper Creek Lodge in Ashford, WA. The inspiration for Goat Creek Lodge.
Christmas at Goat Creek Lodge brings together a close circle of friends every year. The real place that inspired the lodge, which has a large field and some smaller cabins on the other side. Copper Creek Lodge is its name, and I’ve stayed a number of times with family and friends in different seasons.
The snowy field (where Nora shouts her accusation on Christmas morning) with a fire pit. On the property are also several smaller cabins.
Saint Boushoney Day
It’s the final tradition or ritual, and it’s reserved for members of the Mahoney family and their occasional guests. There are two occurrences in the novel of this special day. The first has Sal Camacho joining the Mahoneys, and the second includes Kathleen Sutliff. At the insistence of Nora, every Saint Boushoney Day must begin with her announcement atop the bronze pig in Pike Place Market.
On Saint Boushoney Days, there is also a ritual within a ritual. It takes place at the Gum Wall in Post Alley below the Market. There, Nora brings new members into the Saint Boushoney Day Club through a bizarre initiation practice. It springs from the imagination of a child and invokes the angst of anyone who has ever stared a little too long at the Gum Wall.
Nora’s accident serves as a pivot point in the book, so that the reader experiences the traditions before her loss, then after it. In that way, they serve as a way to help family and friends bridge the tragedy.
I’m not certain which of the Mahoney traditions and rituals will survive into the third book in the series, which (probably) begins in the year 2014, but there will possibly be new ones, particularly since the Mahoney children will be young adults and living their own lives away from their parents.
Photo Credits
Titanic “Grand Staircase” by Cliff, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Copper Creek Lodge Photos via GreatGetaways.com
Post Alley Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash