Sweet Memories
As I wash dishes, as I lie in bed waiting for sleep, as I ride my bike or as I sit waiting for my husband on a bench these are sweet memories that often come to mind:
The time a bunch of us girls were sitting on the front deck of one of my uncle’s boats. We lived in Baltimore, MD at the time near the Chesapeake Bay. I think it was Uncle Gene's. We wandered into the shipping channels for some reason and got into the wake of a large ship. We were all sitting on the bow and grabbed onto whatever we could find. I was clutching the hatch with my fingernails for all I was worth. The wave covered the whole bow and us as well. There were a few moments before we hit the other side of the wave, but not enough time to run back around the boat and down to safety. We all jumped for the rails and wrapped our legs and arms all around to hold on better for the second one. We lived! Boy, were we scared!
My Grandma Beckner's crazy little dog that would take a fit and run and run in wide circles until it fell over exhausted.
The first time I went out on the bay to see the Fourth of July fireworks from Fort McHenry.
Sleeping in the big boats from time to time while tied at the dock at Uncle Gene's house.
Looking for food in the boat cupboards one time when we got stuck out in the middle of the bay for hours because of an engine problem.
While out fishing, Blues starting to bite through a styrofoam cooler which Aunt Shirley was sitting on it. She jumped!
Coming in from a day on the Bay and seeing the jellyfish glow at night getting chopped up by the prop.
Before Uncle Regene had the house near the water, going to the boat "parking lot" where all the boats were lined up at long docks and all the boats in storage on racks. Being afraid to walk way out on the long docks with Dad to where the boats were.
The Seven-up Reindeer at Uncle Leon's house near Christmas. Some of my uncles worked for A&P grocery stores and the reindeer had been part of a promotion. Johnny Payne dressed up like Santa Claus. At the time I didn't know it was him but I didn't quite think it was a real Santa Claus either.
A Christmas when we were already living in Virginia and went to Baltimore arriving on Christmas Eve. Mom and Dad had forgotten all our gifts. Uncle Regene and Uncle Leon went to one of their A&P's after hours and got together anything good for presents. We had some interesting gifts. It actually turned out to be a pretty good cache!
Several Christmases down at the house in Sparrows Point with Grandaddy and crazy things I gave him that I had made. He had kept all the things I had given him through the years. After he died, the things were returned to me. Some are still buried away in a storage box in Virginia. I think!
Nanny's parakeets! They were so funny. And being told by her not to use so much toilet paper as a teen girl because food stamps didn't pay for it!
Getting a tupperware container from Nanny full of sugar packets from McDonald's when I got married. She would go there a lot to get her free cup of coffee for being a senior citizen. She insisted they give all the packets of sugar for which she was due. She used one and saved the rest. They came in handy.
The neat playgrounds close to Nanny's apartment.
The summer Wesley and I spent with Nanny and some of the time with Karen, my cousin, when we were teens.
The time Diane, another cousion, went home with us to Virginia after going camping on the Skyline Drive. Going to CYC camp with her in Northern Virginia, and going to King’s Dominion in Richmond. My brother Wesley stepped on a rusty nail in the parking lot on the way out.
Riding horses with old Mr. Spradlin and learning where he stopped to get a branch of mint to keep the flies off the horses.
Going up into Grandma Beckner's attic. It seemed like a secret room when I was little.
Riding horses with Dot Foutz and having too many kids on one horse. Poor Wesley, my brother, was on the back and slid off once when the crazy old horse decided it had had enough and took off up a steep hill. The horse got rid of one!
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Wouldn't you know it. That sister-in-love of mine is always thinking on the same wavelength as me. She and I must have some kind of ESP! It's a pretty good connection, too, as we live a good distance apart. She just wrote a post on her blog entitled Memories Made and Memories Missed I had just been thinking this week of memories of silly things from days gone by and how as a missionary on the field, time for me is sort of on stand-by when it comes to friends and family in the States. I'm here in Brazil so far away and I remember people as they were the last time I saw them. For me time doesn't pass where they are concerned. For them the days roll by and babies are born and sons and daughters are off and married. Sadly often I don't even know of such events. Thankfully now with blogs and internet and Facebook I can share in a little of what's what with friends that live so far away.
Take care!
The time a bunch of us girls were sitting on the front deck of one of my uncle’s boats. We lived in Baltimore, MD at the time near the Chesapeake Bay. I think it was Uncle Gene's. We wandered into the shipping channels for some reason and got into the wake of a large ship. We were all sitting on the bow and grabbed onto whatever we could find. I was clutching the hatch with my fingernails for all I was worth. The wave covered the whole bow and us as well. There were a few moments before we hit the other side of the wave, but not enough time to run back around the boat and down to safety. We all jumped for the rails and wrapped our legs and arms all around to hold on better for the second one. We lived! Boy, were we scared!
The first time I went out on the bay to see the Fourth of July fireworks from Fort McHenry.
Sleeping in the big boats from time to time while tied at the dock at Uncle Gene's house.
Looking for food in the boat cupboards one time when we got stuck out in the middle of the bay for hours because of an engine problem.
While out fishing, Blues starting to bite through a styrofoam cooler which Aunt Shirley was sitting on it. She jumped!
Coming in from a day on the Bay and seeing the jellyfish glow at night getting chopped up by the prop.
Before Uncle Regene had the house near the water, going to the boat "parking lot" where all the boats were lined up at long docks and all the boats in storage on racks. Being afraid to walk way out on the long docks with Dad to where the boats were.
The Seven-up Reindeer at Uncle Leon's house near Christmas. Some of my uncles worked for A&P grocery stores and the reindeer had been part of a promotion. Johnny Payne dressed up like Santa Claus. At the time I didn't know it was him but I didn't quite think it was a real Santa Claus either.
A Christmas when we were already living in Virginia and went to Baltimore arriving on Christmas Eve. Mom and Dad had forgotten all our gifts. Uncle Regene and Uncle Leon went to one of their A&P's after hours and got together anything good for presents. We had some interesting gifts. It actually turned out to be a pretty good cache!
Several Christmases down at the house in Sparrows Point with Grandaddy and crazy things I gave him that I had made. He had kept all the things I had given him through the years. After he died, the things were returned to me. Some are still buried away in a storage box in Virginia. I think!
Nanny's parakeets! They were so funny. And being told by her not to use so much toilet paper as a teen girl because food stamps didn't pay for it!
Getting a tupperware container from Nanny full of sugar packets from McDonald's when I got married. She would go there a lot to get her free cup of coffee for being a senior citizen. She insisted they give all the packets of sugar for which she was due. She used one and saved the rest. They came in handy.
The neat playgrounds close to Nanny's apartment.
The summer Wesley and I spent with Nanny and some of the time with Karen, my cousin, when we were teens.
The time Diane, another cousion, went home with us to Virginia after going camping on the Skyline Drive. Going to CYC camp with her in Northern Virginia, and going to King’s Dominion in Richmond. My brother Wesley stepped on a rusty nail in the parking lot on the way out.
Riding horses with old Mr. Spradlin and learning where he stopped to get a branch of mint to keep the flies off the horses.
Going up into Grandma Beckner's attic. It seemed like a secret room when I was little.
Riding horses with Dot Foutz and having too many kids on one horse. Poor Wesley, my brother, was on the back and slid off once when the crazy old horse decided it had had enough and took off up a steep hill. The horse got rid of one!
**************************************************************************
Wouldn't you know it. That sister-in-love of mine is always thinking on the same wavelength as me. She and I must have some kind of ESP! It's a pretty good connection, too, as we live a good distance apart. She just wrote a post on her blog entitled Memories Made and Memories Missed I had just been thinking this week of memories of silly things from days gone by and how as a missionary on the field, time for me is sort of on stand-by when it comes to friends and family in the States. I'm here in Brazil so far away and I remember people as they were the last time I saw them. For me time doesn't pass where they are concerned. For them the days roll by and babies are born and sons and daughters are off and married. Sadly often I don't even know of such events. Thankfully now with blogs and internet and Facebook I can share in a little of what's what with friends that live so far away.
Take care!
Wow! This is one way to get to know my sis-in-love better...read about her memories on her blog!
ReplyDeleteWesley has to read this one. I'm sure he will recall some of these memories as well.
Thanks for sharing, Michele.
And, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
I'm glad that you have memories of your family and the special times we were together.The bay gave us a lot of happy and scary moments to remember.Remembering all the times we were together at the shore calls me back home.
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