Do you remember????

Do you have certain things, precious things, that will forever and always be associated with a special person in your life, places that you have been or feelings you have experienced? I think we all do. I know that even a specific smell (good or bad) can take me back to a past time or place. When we went to China, I bought some travel size lotions and shampoos and such. Good thing too, because going to the Carrafore (China's Walmart) in Guangzhou was overwhelming to say the least and I would have more than likely ended up using Chinese Desitin as facial cream and wondering why my face was suddenly as smooth as a baby's bottom! Hehe!! Anyway, I ran out of my usual lotion the other day and tried something new. Sure enough, as soon as I opened the bottle, I was instantly transported back to the White Swan Hotel! It must have been the same lotion that I had traveled with and that smell took me right back! There are also certain smells that take me right back to being 3 months pregnant and wanting to rip my head right off my body because the shampoo that I had loved for so long, suddenly smelled as bad as an open can of tunafish - left in your car - in the middle of the summer - for DAYS!!!!!! Ugh!! Still can't use any Infusiam products:) However, I digress! This post is more about things/objects that remind you of important people or events or places! I began to think about it right after Dad passed away in September. I remember the day that I left to come back home after staying with Mom through the week of the funeral. As I was getting ready to go, I suddenly noticed Dad's "little weather radio" as we liked to call it.



Funny, it had been sitting in it's usual spot for the entire week and I had just really noticed it that day. I think sometimes we get so used to seeing something day in and day out, that we can just look right through it or past it and not appreciate it and I think that can happen with the people in our daily lives too, which shouldn't be. This weather radio, though, and it's predecessors gave my Dad a lot of joy! Even though he loved being a doctor, I think he secretly wished he could have been a meteorologist. He LOVED the weather. It fascinated him and he followed every weather pattern, and every storm and was on top of every single hurricane that threatened the East Coast!! I mentioned the radio to my Mom before I left that day and she very sweetly offered it to me, but I just couldn't remove it from it's place of honor on the bathroom window sill! That is where it has been for many years and that is where it should stay. This may sound strange, but that "little weather radio" will always hold a very special place in my heart!!

There are 3 other objects in my house that offer me comfort with the memories that they hold. The first is an old clock. A clock that, I believe, belonged to my grandparents. This clock sat in the living room of my childhood home for a very long time.



You see, my parents lived (and my Mom still does) in the same house for over 40 years. That is almost unheard of these days, so when I go "home," it is to the home of my childhood. What I remember about this clock is the audible and very soothing tick tock sound that it made and the soft clang, clang that it delivered on the hour. It was a constant in my childhood and while I have it in my house now, it no longer works and while I cannot hear those soothing sounds, I can just look at that clock and imagine the sounds of my childhood and that comforts me. I am afraid to think about what sounds might remind my kids of their childhood!! Don't think it will be soft and soothing, though:)

The next object is actually a piece of drywall!! Well, a piece of drywall that was painted with trucks and dogs and was in the boys' room in our first "family" house. We hired a local art student to come in and paint some trucks in their room and of course the trucks had to have dogs in them!! This one particular truck had a pup in it that looked so much like our beloved dog, Dingo, who slept many nights at the foot of the boys' beds!



When we moved from that first house we filled as a family, we cut that one truck (with the buyers permission) from the wall in that room. We framed it and hung it in hubby's office and it will always remind me of our first wonderful home that we rapidly outgrew but remember as the "baby house!" I think there must have been something in the water as the family that moved in quickly found themselves expecting #3!! LOL!

The other object in my home that takes me back and fills me with joy is a chair! Yep, a chair! A rocking chair to be exact. This rocking chair is not really stylish or trendy and honestly not really my taste, however, in my eyes, it is the most beautiful chair in the world and I will never, ever let it go!



It is the rocking chair (actually a glider) that we bought when we were expecting our first. I really didn't think much about it other than it was the right color of wood (to match the crib) and it was comfy! Little did I know how important that chair was to be. Our first son LOVED to be rocked. When Christian was a toddler and was no longer nursing at night, he would wake (just about every night)and want to be rocked back to sleep and while I knew that I probably shouldn't rock him til he was asleep again, I could not resist. It was OUR time and I was not ready or willing to give it up. I have to admit that there were some nights that I would be so tired and just did not want to get out of my warm bed to rock my boy, but I did. I remember one night in particular. I was about 7 or 8 months pregnant with our second son and was uncomfortable and was rocking Christian. He was quiet in my arms but as soon as I put him in his crib, he would wake and say, "mo wock." I remember feeling so incredibly frustrated and so incredibly tired, but as we rocked in the quiet of the night, I suddenly began to understand that I needed to remember this feeling. I began to realize how quickly these moments were coming to an end and I never wanted to forget the feeling of holding my little curly headed boy in my arms as we rocked together in that chair. Alas, none of my other kids loved to be rocked like my first did, but somehow that chair represents all of their babyhoods to me. It now sits in Christian's room, but I have a feeling that before too long, Momma will reclaim that chair and tuck it safely away while I wait for the next (gulp) generation and I just know they will all love to be "wocked!"

What items do you all have that can take you back or that hold special memories for you?