Good Rembrances

How many of you like to play “remember when”? I know I always have. It is nice to remember the old home place that your family came from and the events that took place there. Or to remember the good times that happened to you and your best friend when you were teenagers. We can even play “remember when” with ourselves as the lone participant. In fact most of us do more often than we realize. Right now I am remembering my maternal grandparents and how much I loved them both. My grandfather was born in 1895 and my grandmother was born in 1903. They saw a lot of startling changes in their years on Earth. At family holiday get-togethers, my grandfather would play his harmonica and tell stories from a long time before I was born, and my grandmother’s claims to fame were her love and her talent as a cook. Her huge meals for our large family are historic. In fact, I can say with some authority that she was, and is to this day still, the best cook in the world. I miss them both.

Another memory I have is how I felt when I moved back to my home town in Illinois when I was in my early 20s. I drove cross country from Colorado to Illinois to get home. My most vivid memory of that event is when I crossed into Illinois from Missouri, and I was immediately assailed by the best smell I had smelled in years. It was the smell of rich black loamy dirt. A few years earlier, before I had taken off to see the world, so to speak, I would have never given the smell of the dirt a second thought, but after being in the desert southwest for a few years, I was back in the land of moisture and rich soils.

Another memory I have, and by no means the least, is the sight of my wife the first time I met her. I had never seen her before but I had talked on the phone with her. I didn’t know what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised. She was beautiful. She had wonderful eyes and she was easy to talk to. It was the best first meeting of my life and I will never forget it. And thankfully that first memory is not the last. She is still the maker of good memories for me in this stage of my life and I am grateful for her.

These are my memories. They mean something to me and to no one else, at least in the personal sense. Are you making good memories? Remember I said earlier that we all play “remember when” with ourselves. The best advice I could give anyone whether young or old is to strive to make good memories to hold on to. Find people to love. All of my best memories are from relationships I have had. Don’t stop making memories and connections to people. Don’t just live on the past. Make new connections and strengthen the ones you already have. Memories are better than gold when they are good memories.The Th