Memory Lane

Music has a way of bringing me back to times and places... it can stir up memories that are so heartwarming. Today I began downloading Christmas music to add to my collection and I got into the old music. Not the music from my teens, I took that walk months ago but I mean the music that played at our family get togethers, and on the radio before I was into my own music... I am talking about the tunes of my Dad and my Papa, songs from my wee years. My Mom and Dad were the "little bit country and little bit rock and roll" types... eclectic musical tastes that were passed on to me. But when we were at my Grandparents, camping or something like that it is the OLD country music "Country Bumpkin" style, I recall.
Oh, how I loved those times. Being little but thinking I was big, I always tried to stake my claim in the "Grownup room". I loved to hear them talk and tell stories and laugh. I am sure now that they would have had a few drinks (I can remember loving to have the job of putting the empty stubby bottles in the case... front hall closet at Nanny's house!!) At the time I did not understand what "Happy hour" meant! But happy we were! A hearty dinner would follow with our own kiddie cups pulled from their spot in the cupboards (Strawberry milk in the Santa cup for me!) We were sure to have Papa announce..."Don't be shy, have some more"
A fortunate little girl I was, in so many ways!! Our family was a get together type! Those visits fill the repertoire of my memories. Nanny and Papa's house came to mind when I heard the old tunes. Good old Rowanwood, I came home from the hospital to that house and we returned to live their in my late teens, but mostly it was their house! The smell is vivid to me, the tiles on their floor are so clear in my mind, the plastic fruit that entertained us kids along with those upstairs bedrooms so filled with treasures. I smile just thinking of them. Krystal and I had our routines, we would check out the same things in the same spots each time we would visit. Nanny's "jewels", her scarves and Papa's cologne bottles and toques. We just loved to look and maybe touch them briefly. The pictures of Nanny as a little girl, and Auntie Gail as a teenager, and me as a babe sitting on Santa's knee. They were part of our ritual. A piece of artwork I made in Kindergarten hung in one of the bedrooms until I was a teenager! I felt so validated each time I would look and see it still there. We would traipse down the path of Papa's tomato garden to look at Mom's old bike in the shed.(It helped us to believe that she too was once a kid!) Then we would "observe" the spot in the yard where Trixie, their faithful old dog was buried and do our dance around the mulberry bush(or at least that is what we called it).
Our family has grown and a new generation of children are creating their childhood memories, but I cannot help but think back to what it was like before they were here. Nanny's kitchen filled with life... windows steamed, Nanny dancin', Auntie Audrey laughing, Uncle Carl being so much bigger than Papa and Auntie Dolly playfully threatening to hang us on a rusty nail if we were bad. Today I can recognize just how much I love my family, in particular I am grateful today for my grandparents. These are remarkable and generous people, my Nanny and Papa. My children know the older versions as years have slowed them down some but thank God they know them. I will appreciate walks down memory lane whenever the opportunity presents itself.