Memory List at 47

Since last week’s post about Malcolm Gladwell, I’ve been thinking of ways to remind myself everyone and everything has a story to tell. One terrific idea comes from Jane at youonlyhavetogetthrutoday: write a Memory List. When I first read Jane’s list, I was struck by how many of her memories resonated with my own–the Weekly Reader, Saturday morning cartoons, and how the smell of tobacco, especially pipe tobacco, lingers fondly rather than disgustingly.

I decided to focus mostly on early and middle childhood memories, choosing 47 for the number of items because that is my new age as of last week. 🙂 Try making your own Memory List to use as writing prompts for those days when nothing seems interesting, or just as a way to remember.

Without further ado, in no particular order and written without too much thought or editing…

Memory List at 47

1. Metal Slinkys
2. Getting a Jane West doll (see video below) and a toy typewriter for Christmas
3. Rows and rows of neatly trimmed, fragrant white and purple lilacs leading to my grandparents’ house
4. Packing hoes in the car or pick-up and going with Grandpa to dig out cactus plants in the field
5. With same Grandpa, counting newborn calves in the spring…
6. and playing canasta…
7. and the smell of Absorbine Jr. when I sat on his lap
8. The difference between the smells of my two grandmothers’ kitchens–one full of baked bread and gravy, the other of unnameable spices and ripe fruit
9. Getting a postcard from Romper Room‘s Miss Nancy
10. Captain Kangaroo (see video below)
    
11. Putting on talent shows with my maternal cousins
12. Phonics workbooks in different colors titled with letters of the alphabet
13. Watching syndicated Star Trek episodes every day after school
14. My mother’s putting the chairs on the table and shooing us out of the house to mop every week
15. Getting used to hard contact lenses
16. The bicentennial summer and drought of 1976
17. The beginning of the year 1970
18. Hearing the news of Nixon’s resignation as I sat in a dentist’s chair
19. My “city” cousins visiting from Gillette, Wyoming
20. The smell of newly mown alfalfa
21. The threat of prairie fires
22. Being terrified by the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz
23. Watching The Carol Burnett Show and laughing uncontrollably, especially at the “Went With the Wind” sketch (see video below)
24. Crying myself to sleep each year when school ended in the spring
25. Walking 1 1/2 miles to the mailbox
26. The sweet taste of mulberries and the stain they left on my fingers
27. My protestant mother’s Lenten meals of canned shrimp cocktails
28. Going to both Lutheran and Catholic churches on Sundays
29. The constant whir of a sewing machine
30. 4H
31. Big Chief notebooks and fat pencils
32. Being fascinated by a neighbor girl who said swore
33. The birth of my youngest brother when I was 9
34. Accidentally knocking a pail of eggs down my grandmother’s cellar stairs
35. Hiding in the hallway after bedtime to get a glimpse of All in the Family
36. Asking my mother what “menopause” meant after seeing one of the All in the Family episodes, and, when she wouldn’t tell me, looking it up in the dictionary
37. Being given a thin church pamphlet from my mother as a way to explain “female concerns”
38. Getting bored with my room and changing the furniture every few weeks
39. The BookMobile’s weekly visit to our grade school
40. The arrival of our 1969 World Book Encyclopedia and Child Craft set (I nearly wore out Child Craft vol. 9)
41. When Dad let go of the back of my bicycle for the first time
42. Waiting impatiently for the monthly Hardy Boys book to arrive
43. Saving Bazooka wrappers
44. Getting a shag haircut
45. Eating crab apples off the tree
46. The rough tongue of young calves as I let them suck two of my fingers, and the calf slobber left on my fingers when I removed them
47. Brushing down just-ridden horses

Jane West doll commercial:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QHfG5BDXA]

Captain Kangaroo:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3w7w58CREY]

 Carol Burnett: “Went With the Wind” (the “curtain dress,” which was designed by Bob Mackie, is in the Smithsonian–how cool is that?!):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH6TBEbP77Q]