Memories

Does this happen to anyone but me?

You are tooling along in your day, minding your own business, and suddenly – a picture, a smell, a sound, triggers a memory so vivid you can’t help but stop and just appreciate it?

Picture credit I am not sure. “Notesformyfuturefarm.com” was the link on Pinterest, but it did not work for me to click on it. So that is as close as I can get.

So, my freshly painting nails were drying and I decided to bop around Pinterest to waste  spend some time waiting.

This picture pops up on the screen, and immediately I am transported.

When I was a kid, my grandmother’s parents and family lived in Saxton, Pa – near Altoona. We spent a lot of time there when I was young. My great-grandparents and great-aunt Dodie lived right next to each other. Literally with just a driveway between. Man, just now, I can realize there are so many memories wrapped up in those two houses – the smell of the linen sheets, the ancient bathrooms, and wonderful lovely tiny 4 ft arthritis gnarled Aunt Dodie faithfully making a HUGE pot of chicken and dumplings every time we visited. But those are memories I will visit another time.

If we weren’t camping at a campground nearby, we split our family between those two houses to sleep. I even had the blessing of knowing my great-great-grandmother who lived with  my aunt. There are so many wonderful memories surrounding those two houses, but the one that this picture triggered – Aunt Dodie’s porch swing. I think of it often. I think it is a source of my love and affection for a lovely porch and porch swing (neither of which I currently had) It also, I think , instilled a love in me, of just sitting and appreciating the moment.

We used to pad back and forth between those houses in our jammies in the morning, to go to one house or the other for breakfast, and eventually at some point in the day wound up on that swing. I am sure at that age, accompanied by the phrase – “It is so boring here!”

I can close my eyes and feel the wicker, and hear the slow creeaaakkkk, crreeaakkkkk

as the chain rubbed the hooks as we swung.

Sometimes we would see how high or fast we could go.

Sometimes we just laid there and listened.

I never could possibly have realized then, how much those moments would play out in my mind as an adult and the joy that would fill my heart.

One thing that I loved the most was when “Uncle Ross” would visit. “Uncle Ross” was one of those adopted uncles, beloved friend of the family, always had a smile, teased us , and always loved to swing on that swing with us kids.

And, Uncle Ross told the story of Little Bunny FooFoo.

It makes my heart swell just thinking about it.

How simple, how silly, yet we all loved to hear it again and again.

And of course giggle when Little Bunny FooFoo got bopped on the head.

I have long appreciated the influence my “extended” family had on my growing up.

One thing that makes me sad for my children is their lack of a big extended family. Ours has grown quite small. But I know, they will have these memories too.

Memories that at the time seemed so ordinary, and probably expected to be forgotten, yet, leave a mark on our hearts forever.