When my son, Danny, was four, he spent Easter with his dad at his aunt's house. It's their tradition that the Easter bunny hides the baskets for the children to find in the morning. To get them into the spirit of the hunt, the adults sing-songed things like, "Now where could your basket be?" "Wherever could it be?" The other kids piped in, too. My son - catching on and wanting to be part of things - put his hands on his hips, glanced around, and said happily, "Now where the fuck is that Easter basket?"
It's Hallmark moments like that I want to make sure we always remember. In the olden days, I could have passed down our family stories through dance, but Danny flees every time I try to get my boogie on. His dad used to be keeper of the stories - he had a gift for re-telling them in all their excruciating, hilarious detail. Since he died five years ago, I fear these memories may be gone forever if I don't write them down.
Today for my life list, I started a file: "Mom's Random Memories," where I'm recording memories and anecdotes as I recall them.
I've been meaning to do it forever, and today I did it. I wrote down as many as occurred to me right away, including the time I accidentally taped Danny to the bed. (It occurs to me this file may also come in handy for when he's in therapy later in life.) I'll add to it as I go. It's nothing fancy - just loose papers in a file - but it'll be fine for my son (who, for all his apparent lack of sentiment, enjoys hearing about himself as much as anyone else does).
So how do YOU keep track of your family's memories?
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2 comments:
Priceless!
Clearly your son is a genius.
(For which you deserve unlimited credit.)
I'd love to ransack that Random Memory file of yours.
I mean, about that "accidental" bed-taping incident... How big was Danny at the time? How long under Mom's torture-tape before he 'fessed up to a crime? And does he still believe it was just an accident?
To the owner of this blog, how far youve come?
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