Memories

Does anyone else marvel at how one little thing can trigger a flood of memories?

I think our brain is such a fascinating thing.

Anyway,  I had a smell trigger memories for me -
and it was really a strange thing -
because it wasn't like a chocolate chip cookie
or apple pie.

It was a smell I didn't know was familiar.

But I immediately had memories flood back of my grandpa.

I started thinking about the house my grandparents lived in.

I can "walk through" in my mind.

Driving to their house from ours -
their house was on the left.

It was red brick
with two big, square windows on the front
situated just so over a painted concrete porch that looked like
two eyes and a straight mouth to a little girl.

The front door was there too.
But we never used the front door....
after all - family comes in the side door right?

In through the carport into a room that I don't really think was ever used.

I think it was added to the house later -
but it had a bookcase in it that I now have in my house.
And on that bookcase - my grandpa kept a clear, glass piggy bank for me.
One that really looked like a pig, and that you had to really break to get your money out.
He always gave us money to put in it when we were there.
And we did.
It was not until I was much older
that I remember using a butter knife to try and get money back out.

Going into the "real" part of the house,
The part that was lived in.
The part that was warm and familiar,
was my grandpas bathroom.

It was small and manly looking.
No rug on the floor
just tile.
It didn't have a tub,
Only a small stand-up shower
and it smelled like a combination of Old Spice and something medicine-y.

And I could describe the rest of the house to you,
and my walk down memory lane,
but with the exception of my mom and my brother who can walk these memories,
I am going to lose the rest of you.

So back to the present....

our new foster girls have this Guam skin condition that is called, "JafJaf"
(*spelling unknown, because it's just a nickname)
But it's really - Seborrhoeic dermatitis 
(*or so I'm told)

and so I was also told that you can treat it by washing your (*their) bodies
with danduff shampoo, which is also seborrhoeic dermatitis.

And so I bought it
and put the girls in the bath
and here we go

Except that....
when I opened the bottle -
it was the medicine smell from my grandpa's bathroom.

ahh....memories.

Funny how they come around sometimes isn't it?

Today, Jan. 3rd is my grandpa's birthday.
He would be 89.
He died when Michael was a baby.
At the time, there was just Michael and my nephew Elijah.

How I wish my grandpa could see his family now.

8 great-grandchildren to brag about - and 6 of them boys.
(and one with his name -Thomas)

He would certainly chuckle about that one -
having only one son
and three grandsons
but now, the boys out-numbering the girls.



Happy Birthday Papa -
thanks for the memories!