Mem'ries.... It's Pretty Dark in the Corners of My Mind

When I was a kid, I got so irritated by all of the old folks who talked about the "good old days." What about NOW? Afterall, they had ME now. How good could it have been when I wasn't around, anyway?

Well, obviously I've grown up a little and finally come to realize the world doesn't revolve around me (now it's my kids who know the world revolves around them....pay backs, I realize). In fact, I've grown nostalgiac in recent years. I've even been known to talk about the "good old days" from time to time.

Memories, for me, are odd. Some people can remember places and times at any prompt..."Oh, yeah, in 1982 I was just finishing...." yeah, whatever. It's not like that for me. I remember a few names, and some places, but mostly my memory bank suffers from a lack of funds. I wish I could blame it on drugs or alcohol, but the truth is I think I just wasn't paying attention.

Sometimes a memory will come flying at me out of nowhere. It hits me up side the head: I remember something from my past with such clarity that I get a little flustered. This past weekend, we had a family reunion, and my aunt and I were talking about a trip we took when I was a kid. All of a sudden, I was 6 years old again, waking my aunt and stumbling through the dark to the outhouse to pee. The whole trip bubbled up to the surface, but only vaguely. But that one midnight event was as clear as if I were standing there.

I guess the whole reunion was like that: bam! whack! hiya! Three-second memories slapped me silly. Of course, my memory is so bad that now, a week later, I can only remember the one.