Memories

I have been job hunting these past two week. I have realized that I am unable to live within my means and still keep those things around me to which I have become accustomed. I knew it was coming when my pay was cut in half after I retired. And I lasted longer than I thought I would, but it is all about to catch up with me. Hence, the job hunting.

Back in the old days, it was so easy. You went in, filled out an application, and if they liked the way you looked, you got an interview right then and there, often walking out with a job offer. Boy, how I wish those days were back!

Today, you email or fax your resume. If you are ambitious, you cross check the email address to see if they have a website, and then find them in the Yellow Pages to see what you can find out about the company. You list your resume and job requirements on job boards and services like Monster or Hot Jobs. And then you wait. Heaven forbid that you should walk into a company to introduce yourself to put a face to the resume you faxed. You wait and pray that somebody will call you for an interview.

So, while I have been doing my share of waiting, I decided to pull out a lot of our old family photos. We are having our first "cousins" reunion in several decades, and there ought to be a ton of us. One of our ambitious cousins is organizing it, and she wants to prepare a power point presentation with all of our pictures. I thought that would be easy and quickly completed.

But it wasn't and it is going to take some time. Why? Because each photo is a memory. A memory of the person, how you know him or her or what happened to cause that picture to be taken in the first place. Then your mind wanders to all that you remember about that person and the rest of the family. Which takes your mind to another memory, and you search your old photo books for the picture you remember seeing years before.

Another cousin was in Port Aransas vacationing with her family. Since it was just down the road from me, we made arrangements to visit. She had just recently lost both of her parents, so I decided to bring with me several of the older photos I had of her side of the family. And with each one we found ourselves telling the "remember when" story that the picture evoked. Her grown girls were enjoying seeing us as children, and what their grandparents looked like sixty years earlier. We could have stayed a lot longer laughing and wishing for those old days, but we consoled ourselves that we did have those memories.

Her youngest grandbaby has just turned two. He was having no part of me for the longest time. But he suddenly started saying "Nanny" to me. It dawned on his mother that I looked like his "Nanny" and he thought I might be her. He was making his own memories.

When my nephew was a baby, I would lie on the floor and put him on my chest, entertaining him for hours blowing bubbles and making fish faces at him. Several months often went by between visits, and after once such time lapse, a strange thing happened. When he saw me, he reached over from his grandmother's arms, babbled something, then promptly slapped me in the face. I was stunned! I had waited so long to become an aunt, and I was desperately trying to figure out what I had done to make him hate me so. I wanted to cry.

I was sitting on the floor, and he came crawling over to me, pulled himself up, smiling the entire time. And promptly hit me in the face again. Then IT hit me!  He had a memory. I made a fish face, blew a bubble, and he babbled and giggled at me all afternoon. I am happy to say that although he is a grown man, we still have a connection.

Sorry, Miss April, it may take me a while to get all these pics to you. Lots of stories behind them. Lots of pictures of those with us, and too many of those who are no longer here on Earth! Good times and bad. But all part of who I am.

So many memories, so little time.

OMG! I am one of the elder statesmen of our family. In thirty years, they will be searching for old photos of us old "geezers" and talking about the olden days!

I hope those memories will bring them pleasure and laughter.