Walking Down Memory Lane

IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR HISTORY YOU ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.

This was always the phrase used when growing up around my Pop-Pop and my dad who are complete history buffs. These two men impacted my life to become the woman that I am today. As we grow older, we sometimes forget key moments of our childhood that shaped us. I want to take a walk down memory lane and explore some of these forgotten times. I am happy that memories exist because we can always go back and relive them.

It was like magic at my grandparent’s house during Christmas. Especially when I was a little girl. I would come over and it seemed like out of nowhere the Christmas tree was up and decorated, the train was going around at the bottom of the tree, the Santa Clause animatronic would be singing its songs, and the house smelled of cinnamon and baked cookies. My grandfather, dad, and I would go sleigh riding when it snowed, and my grandfather always managed to break the sleigh which we would all laugh about.

I was in elementary school at the time, and they were teaching us about Haikus. I found it challenging to understand how to make a three-sentence poem. I shared that with my dad as we went on a walk together. There was a broken-down tower we went to frequently and he always told me the story about what it looked like before it got knocked down. He said it was high up and you could see the whole city. Even though the tower was gone it was still a beautiful hilly area. He and I lay on the ground and looked up at the sky and tried to make a haiku. He said to me “doesn’t the sky look like a dome?” and as I looked at it, I could see it. So, I made up a haiku “The world is like a dome, big blue skies, that is my home.”

When I was in first grade, I had a hard time learning how to read. My grandfather decided to help me and used Dr. Seuss and the Berenstain Bears (pre-Mandela effect) I was able to learn quickly and then I started to read fluently. He also taught me how to ride a bike off my training wheels. I was terrified but he reassured me and pushed me. After that time, I never had any issues riding a bike.

When I was in High school my father took me to a World War 1 Museum for a school project. He was determined to give me as much information as possible. I learned a lot that day, and it was a great experience to learn about the past. My grandfather had an old War World 1 Helmet that he kept, and I took many pictures and shared them with my classmates. Everyone was impressed but I was happy because of how much they interacted and learned from the experience.

There are too many memories to count when I look back in time. We exchanged wisdom and countless laughs. My grandfather died in September 2014. One last thing he was not able to show me was how to drive. I had a fear of driving for a very long time. I went to Africa and lived as a missionary for 2-3 years and he never was there to say those farewells. But I know he was there in spirit. After coming home, I was finally brave enough to try and get my license. I used my father’s car. I tried a couple of times and failed, but one day I passed and received it on May 20th, 2019, a few days before my grandfather’s birthday. I know somewhere in heaven he was screaming for joy. Even when our loved ones are not with us physically, they exist in those tiny fragments of the past in our memories that we need never forget.