Memories

MEMORIES RETURNED Al and I love to go out to yard sales.  We sometimes look for VCR tapes. About a year or so ago a guy offered us this whole box full of tapes for $10.00.  We usually just pick out a movie whenever we have an evening that hasn’t anything special to do.  As we began watching this particular VCR, we realized that it looked like some kind of a recording of a family in the 1800’s?  We stopped and looked at the cover and could see that it was done by a photographer and it was in the town of Blairton, WV.  It also had another town listed, the town of Martinsburg, WV. I tried to find info on the internet and finally decided to call the Visitor Center in that area.  Well, nothing came of anything. So I would stick them aside on the shelf. I just could not bring myself to throw them (there were two tapes) into the waste basket.  Every now and then I would come across them and wonder what to do with them. Then on Oct. 1 we went to Buffalo, ...

Today Al was out burning the brush pile and I was out in the veggie garden pulling up the last of the green beans.  All of a sudden I got a big whiff of the smoke from the fire as it drifted around to the back of the house.  Oh, the smell of burning leaves instantly puts me back to the old farm house that had lots of maple trees all around it.  Dad would rake the leaves into the ditch by the road and burn the leaves.  I was big enough to be able to hang around while the leaves were burning.  That smell was burned into my brain and now wherever we might go and I would get a whiff of that burning smell, instantly I would be transferred right back to that spot by the side of the road and I can see my Dad standing there leaning on the rake handle.  Thank God that even though our loved ones have gone on before us, they are still instantly there with us in a moments notice that a memory pops up. Thank  You God for the gift of memories.

My Dad was a self-taught musical genius. From the time he was a toddler toddling up to the screen door to listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the screen to the time he went to see the marching band at the fair, music was his life. When he saw the band with the slid-trombones he was hooked. He and his mother dragged out the Sears and Roebuck catalog and turned to the instruments. And there it was in all its bright and shining glory. Dad taught himself how play by siting beside another fellow and listening to him and following along. Soon he was able to play on his own. He played in the Army band and local bands in Boston. Then his folks moved to Maine and he joined some other guys who played wherever they could land  a job.. After marriage and a move to the farm, he decided to get up his own dance band and play at the local barn dances. And so the years passed by and soon my sister and I were old enough to tag along to the dances. I loved to dance and he loved to pla...

Do you remember when -------?  Remember how we used to ------?  Oh how we cherish those memories.  Memories are wonderful gifts that God has given to each of us.  Memories can be special things that we recall that happened long ago. Sometimes a picture, a smell or just something that God has popped into our mind will all of a sudden send a memory.  Not all things we remember are pleasant, but the good things are worth reliving or seeing them again in our mind. So I hope that some of the memories that are posted here might cause someone out there to recall a special memory that they have not thought of for a long time or maybe just recently.  This is the first post and it is an introduction to what this post will be about and I hope that it helps you to recall a memory and remember that it is a gift from God. Shirl.