“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
Gracie snores, and last night she snored so loudly she kept waking me up. My bedtime was late enough without being disturbed by her multiple snores and an occasional snort. I’m tired and it is only 11 o’clock. Gracie, of course, is having a morning nap. The poor baby must be tired.
Cold day today, it is in the high 30’s, but the sun is shining so I’m not going to complain. When I went to get the papers, I heard birds singing to greet the morning. It sounded like spring to me.
I have random memories which loop through my mind. Some I see only once while others recur. Some of my memories of growing up are faded and worn while others are so bright they could have happened yesterday. My grey jacket reappears out of one my memory drawer every spring. It was my favorite jacket because I started wearing it only when the weather got warmer. It had no lining. It did have pockets on each side, and it had a zipper. My brightest memory is wearing that jacket and skipping on the sidewalk on my way to school.
I still remember biology and dissecting a frog. My memory drawer has a picture of the frog lying on its back on a silver lab tray. It looks washed out, too long preserved. My lab partner wanted nothing to do with that frog and the scalpel. It was left to me. She took all the notes. That was our deal. Making the first cut took me a while. I had to forego the urge to gag. Dead frogs didn’t bother me, but their insides were better left inside.
My first Ghana memory is of the morning after our arrival. My room was on the second floor of a school dorm. I remember walking outside, standing at the rail and looking at what was spread out below me. I saw greenery everywhere. I could see rusty tins roofs. I remember the awe. I was in Africa.
My memory drawers overflow. Some I can’t even open; others I can’t shut. The sad memories have their own places. Sometimes they come unbidden. They are not always welcome.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: biology, cold, dissecting a frog, Ghana, greenery, memory drawers, random memories, sad memories, singing birds, Snoring, spring jacket, sunny day, tin roofs
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February 26, 2016 at 1:28 pm
Dear Birgit
And so it has happened – Tottenham Hotspur have been drawn to play Borussia Dortmund on March 10 and 17 in the round of 16 of the Europa League.
I am sure that Bochum is excited that such a glamorous fixture is ahead and I have seriously considered heading for London for the second leg
It should be fab fab fab
Hedley
February 26, 2016 at 2:13 pm
Hedley, dates are already saved, it will be fun!
Let’s Keep The Comments Coming.
February 26, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Birgit – England v Germany is one thing but a showdown between our club teams is another.
Dele Alli is not eligible for the first leg due to a stupid yellow card for “diving” – he didn’t so maybe it will get appealed
Maybe we need a whatsapp account for the game ? Yesterday I was chatting to St Jakob stadium in Basel and to White Hart Lane in London during the matches
February 26, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Hedley, I immediately thought of you when I heard it on the news today.
Details later, I don’t know whether Dortmund or Leverkusen or no game at all will be on TV and I don’t even have WhatsApp. Oldfashioned me just got her first smartphone 2 days ago, it’s an old one a friend gave me for free. Nice tech toy! I’m still exploring…
No soccer for me yesterday, I had to listen to bad music on TV, national qualification for the European Song Contest in Sweden.
Kat, we’ll occupy your comment section on May 14 🙂
February 26, 2016 at 5:51 pm
Birgit,
I always think of the comment section as ours!
February 26, 2016 at 3:18 pm
Thankfully no snoring from any of the animals here 🙂
The sun has been shining all day and it was so nice to walk in the forest out to the bog. It was so warm even in the shadows that I could have my jacket open 🙂
We disected guinea pigs in my school Almost no one wanted to do it so it was only a girl and I who did it. I figured that since it already was very dead I sure couldn’t harm it more 🙂 It was rather interesting until I happened to puncture the appendix which they use, the entire class room smelled awful after that 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 26, 2016 at 5:54 pm
Christer,
Boxers have pushed in faces which are the reasons they snore. Gracie is the worst of any of my dogs.
The wind makes it far colder. Yesterday Boston got to 60˚. We got to 50˚. The wind was so cold.
We had no choice about the frog. It was part of the course, and it was an important part. You’d fail it without doing the dissection.
I think of Guinea its as pets so it would be difficult for me. Fronts are just frogs.
Have a great day!
February 27, 2016 at 11:06 am
Memory is a very strange phenomena. Obviously, things of major importance in our lives stick in our memories, but are they really truthful? Brain research indicates that whenever we remember something our mind modifies or changes the memory. So is that memory of dissecting the frog a documentary film or a fictionalized version that has been modified by all your subsequent memories? This is why eyewitness testimony is so filled with errors. A law professor in the 1940s asked his class if they thought eyewitness testimony was accurate? He asked the class how many of them smoked cigarettes. In those days lots of people smoked cigarettes. He followed up by asking how many of them smoked Camels. Then, he asked those students, ‘Is the man on the package riding or leading the Camel? Half said riding and the others said leading. Of course, there is no man on the package of Camel cigarettes.
As I get older I have more trouble remembering names. Let’s see who’s the name of that lady that writes this blog? Oh, it’s Kat. 🙂
February 27, 2016 at 11:16 am
Bob,
No, I can see the room, the tables, the tray and the frog. I know where I sat. I can close my eyes and walk to the bio lab from my classroom by memory. I haven’t ever watched programs on dissecting frogs.
People remember what was important to them. The camel package is just there. You don’t tend to look at it much. You grab the butt and smoke it.
I have forgotten many names too. I went to two 50 year reunions this summer. Some people at the first I hadn’t seen since 1964, but I remember many of them by their faces. I said hi to Bea whom I remembered well. My friend Maryalyce asked where Bea was from. Bea, Maryalyce and I went to elementary school together then to high school in a different town. We rode the bus together every day then junior year we rode in Maryalce’s car to school. I’d have thought Bea would be an easy one to remember.
I have some sketchy memories. I have pieces of memories. Somethings, though, I doubt I’ll ever forget.