Sunday, March 14, 2010

Why Do Some Memories Last Forever?


It's funny how the human mind works. There are certain things that I remember like they were yesterday, and then there are things that happened in my childhood that I have absolutely no recollection of at all, while other siblings remember those things vividly. It makes one wonder about such at times.
Today, I had both grandchildren, and we were playing house in the basement.I can get a little something done while I pretend to be playing house with them. Leah decides who gets to use which area to be their space, and you can guess who gets the neatest area. I always get the messy area, which works out well for me in that I get a little extra time to straighten it up and clean and organize while playing our little game. She is content and so am I. Well, John was going between our two areas, which was annoying his sister tremendously, but he seemed to be content meandering through the basement, in and out of our areas, with his toys.I had just yesterday hung a lovely Easter plaque on my new room door. It is one that I dearly love and can hardly wait to hang it up each year. It is a wreath of sorts, made of some type of thin ceramics material. It has a stamp on it, so I figure it was factory made, but could very well be made in ceramics class,if one had that pattern.Now to the memory part. John slammed the door too hard, and guess what happened next.Right, the plaque fell to the concrete floor and shattered to a million teensy pieces.John began to cry and tell Meemaw how he didn't mean to break it. I immediately remembered the feeling I had when I would stay with my Grandma for days at a time, and one day we were making fried apples pies. I was about 6 or thereabouts. I was standing up in a chair to reach everything better. Grandma had an old time granite topped cupboard with the glassed in shelves at the top, and below to one side,was a tilt out flour bin.In that bin, she kept a huge glass bowl and a rolling pin.Well, I was using the big rolling pin to roll out the pie crust, and it fell into the flour bin, hitting right in the glass bowl, and shattering it.That's all I remember happening at that time, but I do remember Mom letting me get Grandma another bowl. A huge plastic bowl at the dollar store, I think. I am sure there was no way to replace the memories and feelings which that bowl created for my grandmother, and I am sure she cherished her pretty dishes as I do today, but i don't remember her uttering a word or scolding me about what I'd done. I know she must have hurt inside, but she never let me know. It was all over and forgotten.Not that I could ever forget it, but it was never mentioned again.Things like that just happen, and there is no use getting all upset over it, and leaving a bad memory for the child.They feel guilty enough, I'm sure, as I did.
John came back in a few minutes and asked me"Are you still mad,Meemaw?" I told him "No, things like that just happen. It will be alright. Don't worry another minute about it.Meemaw will fix it."(At least, I think I can.)Sorry for such a long post, for such a short story. Until my next post, Happy Blogging!

2 comments:

  1. I enjoy both of your blogs this morning. I know kids can do things and they don't mean to, but I sugest you can glue what you can and put some silk flowers in the places that can't be fix, maybe this will work for you. Have Great Day!

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  2. Thanks! I did manage to glue most of it back together, but instead of using silk flowers, I used spackle to fill in the missing pieces, and will touch it up with paint when it dries completely. I think I'll find another place to dislay it next time.

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