Currently the thinking in Cognitive Psychology is that memories are not stored but are recreated. Each time we “Remember” an event, our mind recreates the memory from bits and pieces of things that we associate with the event. The impact of this process is that there is great latitude in the accuracy of what we believe happened in our pasts. My spouse Karen and I often have totally different recalls of what happened at a given event. Interviews with people who were on the “grassy knoll” at the time of JFK’s assassination show that their memories six weeks later had changed quite a bit. From not seeing anything or hearing anything to suddenly remembering someone shooting or running and puffs of smoke appearing in the air.
Christmas is a wonderful time that serves as a catalyst for bringing up old memories. Memories of days gone by with relatives. Memories of cooking at Christmas or holidays with our mother. Memories around the holiday dinner table. Memories of gift shopping and gift giving. Memories of decorating the house. Memories of trees, lights and angels.
Many of our memories are poignant. Some memories bring sadness as we remember the “Good” old days. Most memories bring joy as we relive in our minds the love and happiness that we once shared with long-gone friends and relatives. We conjure up pictures of a past that we paint with vivid colors, dramatic actions and a dream filled choreography which may or may not bear much resemblance to the actual event. It doesn’t matter though. We are not trying to sell it. At worst, we want to share it with others and share with them the memories that they have.
I sit here thinking of some Holiday memories. Some less related to the holidays and more or less related to the “good old” days. I am not sure if they are real, but I tell myself that they are. Here are a few that come to mind:
- 18 cent a gallon gasoline
- 25 cent movies
- 15 cent popcorn
- 10 cent bus rides
- Ferris wheel rides at Coney Island
- Swimming with my sisters at Lake Ronkonkoma
- Walking by myself when I was only 7 to PS 171 school in Brooklyn
- Propelling myself down a Brooklyn street on a scooter made with a wooden box and old roller skate wheels
- Carrying groceries in my little red wagon for people from the store to their Apt. for 10 cents
- Visiting with my cousin Louis
- Dreaming that someday I would be an astronaut
- Deciding if I really wanted to be an astronaut or maybe a world-famous archaeologist
- Wishing that I had my own set of encyclopedias
- Midnight mass on Christmas eve
- Wondering if I would get a bicycle for Christmas when I was seven years old
To paraphrase the famous song from The Sound of Music, these are a few of my favorite memories.
Bows on gift boxes and dreams of new toys,
Shiny new building blocks and Lincoln log homes.
A bicycle with three speeds that was meant mostly for boys,
Trains that ran on 1/64 scale tracks, some with a cute little dome.
These are a few of my favorite Christmas memories.
I hope this holiday season brings joy, peace and prosperity to you and your loved ones. I would love to hear from you what your favorite memories are. Please use the comment section to post as many as you like.
I will post our annual holiday letter next Monday.
Karen says that I should start our annual holiday letter off because I write better than she does. Well, since it is the holiday season, I will let her slide. For my part, (Karen will add hers in a short while), I promise not to talk about politics, religion or philosophy. We are all sick of politics and you are probably only marginally interested in the latter two topics. What’s left then? Well, I was thinking that I just turned 70 in September. I never believed that I would see 30 years of age. Now here I am 4 decades later pondering the same mysteries of life that I pondered forty years ago. Feeling a little nostalgic, I got to thinking about the “firsts in my life.” For instance, my first kiss and my first job. So how about participating in a little nostalgia here and fire up your memories as well. I have posted a list of “my firsts” with my responses to each item. List is on the left with my responses to each one on the right. Can you remember your answers to my list? I would love to hear your list of firsts. Please post your FIRSTS in the comments section if you can remember what they are and don’t mind sharing.
Hi all. I think I’ll stick with my firsts for the past year. My first Dulcimer Jamboree in April, 2016 in Mountain View AR where I met the dulcimer 9 years ago. A fateful meeting it was. My first chromatic travel dulcimer which I took with me to New York in Nov. My first raised bed garden this past summer made from old discarded stock tanks. It produced more food than we could eat and it was so easy to weed and harvest. My first grandson, Garrick, getting married to Kat this coming spring. My first viewing of an opera at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. My first concert in Carnegie Hall. My first trip up the Statue of Liberty and out to Ellis Island to look for ancestors.
It’s been a full, fun and sometimes exhausting year. We still work part time to support our “snow birds” lifestyle. I’m working with start-up home care agencies, teaching and consulting, and ICD 10 coding. John has taught both on-line and residence classes. We escaped our part time work with trips down to Kentucky for Kentucky Music Week, trips to the ocean in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, and a fall anniversary trip to Bayfield, WI. And, of course, the trips back and forth from WI to AZ where John tries to find new unspoiled routes each time we go.
Aging Capriciously 