Flashes of Memory

I recently had an email exchange with one of my cousins in which I had shared a little childhood memory with her.  It was a rather insignifcant memory - just something I used to do once in a while when I was a little girl.

But for some reason recalling this memory from my childhood seems to have opened a floodgate of memories.  Ever since this email exchange, I have been having the most amazing flashes of memories from those days long gone by!  Little vignettes of my childhood flash through my mind in little bits of what is almost like one minute videos of people, places and things that I have not thought about in years. 

There does not seem to be anything special about the memories that come forward - they are totally random.  They are not necessily memories of really important stuff either - just stuff.  For instance, last night as I was falling asleep, I had a flashing memory of myself and a good childhood friend, Margie, running down an old gravel road barefoot!  We were running and laughing and must have been heading somewhere fun!  I mean, I could feel the gravel under my feet!  It was a hot summer day and we were running so fast I was getting one of those stitches in my side.

I have never been one to always be looking back.  Well, I do somethimes think about my childhood and feel lucky to have lived in the time and place that I did.  See this early blog I wrote about my hometown of Winneconne.  Once in a while through the years my kids will ask about life "way back then" and I would tell them about the games we played (Annie Annie Over, Kick the Can) or the things we did that I would NEVER allow them to do - like play in an old abandoned barn, take long, long (and I mean all day) walks just following the railroad tracks just because.

But most of the time, I am content to live in today.  I acknowledge that my past - for better or worse - had a great deal of influence in shaping me into the person I am today.  But otherwise, I just sort of left the past in the past.  But I have to say these flashes of memories are fun!  I rather enjoy laying in the grass again with Janie Gavin and watching the clouds go by and finding shapes in them.  And I always loved swimming in the Wolf River so it was kind of fun to have that great flash of me running down the dock and jumping in and feeling that icy water cool my summer hot skin.

So come on memories - show me some more!