When reading other diaries, I noticed that most people share past memories. The problem is, I don't have many. I don't understand why it is, but most of the time when something happens I don't remember it later. I noticed that today when Corey began to reminisce, and suddenly the event popped into my head, but very vaguely. I would never have remembered it if he hadn't jogged my memory. It's quite strange.....
So let's try to remember some things... happy memories.... like trips to the hardware store with my dad. It didn't matter where we were living -- on random Saturdays and Sundays Dad would pop into my room where I was inevitably reading a book and ask, "Do you want to go to the hardware store with me?" Usually that was the highlight of my week. Going there with my dad, smelling that unmistakable hardware store smell.... the fertilizer and the lumber and all that metal... Even now when I go into Hechinger's for something random I think of Dad and remember our trips to Ace or Fischer's or wherever....
Another memory -- one time I was visiting Momma, and my sister Michele was elsewhere, I don't remember where. I think she was already in the Navy and married, because I think I was 16. Momma and I spent all night talking about everything... Momma finally went to sleep at 4am because she had to go to work the next morning, but I couldn't sleep. This is when she had the place right on the Chesapeake Bay, and I went walking down to the beach in my jammies. The sunrise was just amazing... the sun just over the horizon and the light streaming over the water right over me. I prayed that my camera would capture the moment... and it did, in a way. But the peacefulness of that morning was something I'd never felt before. I was alone on the beach, with miles of sand stretching away on either side of me. Complete solitude, but this time loneliness was absent. The beauty of the moment kept me company.
The day I turned 6 is an amusing memory of mine. I woke up that morning and expected a big to-do to be made over me. But Michele and Momma hardly noticed me. In my childlike way, I figured I'd gotten the date wrong, and went off to school cheerful and happy. Later that night, Momma packed Michele and me into the Pinto for some shopping. When we ended up at the mall, I was a little surprised... Momma didn't have the money to go shopping randomly. As we walked along, Momma pulled me to one of those kiosks in the middle of the mall, and told me to pick out a pair of earrings. I didn't understand, and told her that my ears weren't pierced. It was then that she told me my birthday present for that year was to get my ears pierced. I was so excited!! I picked out gold stars, and when the lady put the gun to my ear, it hurt, but I wanted to act as grown-up as I felt, so I didn't cry. Momma was so proud of me, and it was really one of the best birthdays I've had in its childlike simplicity.
More to come later...