Why Remember?

 

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My grandparents and I did some remembering today at lunch. What follows are some scraps of the memories we conjured up. Recently Sheldon asked the question, "What's the deal with memories?...Is the point of an adventure to make memories? It's as if memories are a commodity which we collect--experience points--to be redeemed later on in life when, sitting in nursing homes, we ask ourselves whether it was all worth it." After a day spent in the act of remembering with two people I love my answer is that memories hold relationships together. They are shared points of reference that mark our journey together. Without those experiences linking us the words Grandmother, Uncle or Daughter are mere  titles. So, yeah, when we are sitting in nursing homes I imagine that we will have fewer pleasures greater than dragging out the same old memories and retelling them, because they are the way that we make sense of where we've been and to whom we belong. 

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We recalled the time when the two of them came to babysit Patrick (9), Paul Hugh (3) and I (6) while our parents were in Rwanda visiting a school they were considering working at. My grandma was on the phone telling my mother how well-behaved we were being, while in the background my grandpa was spanking Patrick for sassing him. 



I asked my grandparents where they went on their honeymoon, because Sheldon and I need to pick a place soon. They went to Colorado and drove up Pike's Peak. My grandpa's car broke down at every turn on the mountain and he had to restart it about twelve times before they made it to the top.

Random Things I Learned About My Grandparents:
1. My grandmother learned to make cornbread when she was seven.
2. My grandpa never got braces because the men in his family thought it was unmanly.
3. The town my grandpa grew up in had about 600 people.
4. My grandma wore white socks and penny loafers all through high school.
5. My great-uncle (Grandma's baby brother) was named after Lindon B. Johnson

I also did some poking around in closets today and found a pair of my mother's old metal roller skates, my great-grandmother's sewing machine and the newspaper clipping describing my grandparent's wedding.

My grandpa and I spent thirty banal minutes on the computer reasoning with his scanner to no avail. That is why I will not be including any drawings today. Instead I offer this array of some photos I have of my grandparents.

I hope you have enjoyed this mash-up of memories,
Lucy Rose