Memories In Unexpected Places (Photo Essay)

This is for the group Picture The Quote Challenge: Week 4. The quote is:

"How we remember, what we remember and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality." - Christina Baldwin

As most people know, my oldest daughter has just moved away to go to college. It seems like everywhere I look there are things that remind me of her. Obviously, that is to be expected. However, the things that really hit me the hardest are not the things you might expect, like finding some of her clothes mixed up with mine in my closet. No, I get reduced to tears, because I put Sunchips in the shopping cart and hubby looks at me funny and asks who I am buying them for, since Sam is the only one that eats them. This has been my life for the last two weeks, so this quote really spoke to me in a way in which perhaps other people might not relate.

I decided to do a photo essay, because I could not decide on any one picture that truly captured the quote. As the quote implies, it is not one moment in time, but the accumulation of these moments that creates our own personal road map of our identity. Normally in photo essays, I put the caption before the picture, because it gives the reader a bit of insight into the picture. In this essay, though, I want you to think about what you see in the picture, before I tell you what it means to me.

This is a figurine that Sammie bought me on one of our vacations. It was my "good luck charm" when I shot pool. If I marked the pocket with this, then I usually made the shot. If I marked it with something else, then I often didn't make the shot. If our team wasn't playing at a bar, then sometimes Sammie could go with me and watch me play. This reminds me of all the fun we had during those times.

These are Lord of the Rings cards that Sammie and I collected. We also collected Pokemon cards, and I think we have every Pokemon game for our Gameboys. This reminds me of the "Lord of the Rings Marathons" we would have, where we would spend all day watching all three movies. It also reminds me of the hours we would spend together going through our cards and playing the games together.

This is the first toy ever bought for Sweet Pea. When Sammie found out she was going to have a baby brother or sister, she was so excited. She said that James and I couldn't buy anything for the baby, though, because it was "bad luck". Then, she came home with this toy she had bought with her own money. She just wanted to be the first one to buy anything for the baby.  ;-)  This also reminds me of how sad Sammie was when she realized that she wouldn't get to spend a lot of time with her little sister before she would have to go away to college.

This is my waterbed. It reminds me of how on Saturday and Sunday mornings it was a "tickle ring". Sammie would crawl into bed with me after her father got up. Then, we would commence with the "tickle war". It was a mandatory part of the weekend activities. After we were laughing so hard we couldn't breath, we would lay next to each other and talk about all the things that had happened that week or what we wanted to do that day or whatever else came to mind. I really miss those times.

These three pictures are decorations that Sammie made one year for my birthday. She put them on my T.V., so they would be the first thing I saw when I woke up. That year I had just started a new job and had only been working there a month when my birthday came, so I obviously didn't expect them to make a big deal out of my birthday. It just so happened that another lady that worked there had the same birthday as mine. It was a small place, so apparently everybody's birthday got marked on the calendar and celebrated. The whole agency took up a collection to buy a cake, flowers and a card for her, and we had a party for her that afternoon. She was the only person to notice that my name was also on the calendar, and after the party she came up to me and wished me a happy birthday, too. I know it sounds childish, but it really hurt my feelings that nobody else acknowledged that it was my birthday, too. Sammie really felt badly that I was upset, so she decorated my room the very next day and made it a very special "Mommy's Birthday Celebration". It meant so much to me that those decorations have been put on every T.V. that I have had in that room.

This is a Pirates of the Caribbean poster. It reminds me of the day that we saw the first movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl". We loved the movie so much that we saw it three times in one day! We went to three different movie theaters, so they wouldn't think we were crazy. It's a good thing that I had a great paying job at the time, because the cost of the tickets alone was outrageous not to mention the fact that we had to have popcorn, soda and candy each time. We were so sick by the end of the day from all the junkfood that we ate, but we would have done it again in a heartbeat!

 
This is one of Sammie's favorite books. We would sit and read it aloud to each other, but we never got a chance to finish it. This reminds me that we probably never will, either.

This is the first Mother's Day present Sammie ever made me. Her father and I were fighting at the time, so he wasn't going to do anything for me. Sammie was only three, but she knew that it was a day to do something special for Mommy, so she asked Papa to help her make something. This reminds me how perceptive and loving kids can be.

This is the lawn mower we had when we bought the house. It reminds me of how Sammie used to sit on her daddy's or my lap and "drive" it while we mowed the lawn.

These stumps obviously used to be trees. They were the goal line when we used to play football. They remind me of all the fun times we had playing sports and running around the yard playing tag or dodgeball.

This is the tree in the neighbor's yard. It reminds me of how Sammie and the neighbor's daughter used to climb the tree. We didn't really worry about them and getting hurt, though, because it was much smaller back then.

These leaves are already changing color, which means that Fall is coming soon. It reminds me of how a lot of other parents couldn't wait to ship their kids back to school, but I could never understand this attitude. I always dreaded the first day of school, because it meant that I didn't have as much time to spend with my daughter.

This is the Wishing Well that my daddy made for me to cover the actual wellhousing. It reminds me that when the kids were little, they were not allowed to go past the Wishing Well when they were playing in the yard. It is a good distance from the road, and one of us was always watching them, but it gave them a visual reminder that they weren't supposed to go near the road.

This is a barricaded driveway now, but it used to be just barely a dirt trail. It reminds me of when we used to take our dogs for walks back there. One time, we came across a coyote, who was as surprised to see us as we were to see it. Another time, we saw a neighbor riding her horse back there, and she stopped to let the kids pet the horse.

This is a wagon that Sammie's dad used to pull behind the lawn mower for the kids to ride in to keep them occupied while we were cutting the grass. It reminds me of how excited they would get when he said it was time to mow the lawn, because they loved the bumpy ride.

This is one of the Crab Apple trees in the backyard. It reminds me of how every year we would tell the kids not to eat the Crab Apples. Every year, though, they would eventually give in to the temptation, and then they would have a belly-ache for the rest of the day. They would swear that they would never do it again . . . until the next year, of course - lol!

This is the field out back. It used to have dirt hills just the right size for riding over with the mountain bikes or the dirtbike. There was also a stream down in back that we would walk to and look for frogs and fish. The field is overgrown now, and the stream has dried up. It reminds me how much things can change in such a short time.

This is the swingset we put up the first summer we moved in. It is rusty and unkept now, but it reminds me of how much fun we used to have playing on it. We used to swing so high that it felt like we would go right over the bar, and we used to do routines on the trapeze bar to see who could do the best tricks.

This is the wagon I used to pull Sammie around in. It reminds me of how she would want to take turns and pull me, too. She wasn't strong enough to pull me, though, so when she wasn't looking I would push with my feet to help her along. It was so cute, because she never knew that I was "helping".

This is the basketball hoop in the side yard. It reminds me of the hours we would spend playing "Around the World". Inevitably, someone would get stuck near the end, get frustrated, "chance" it, and have to go all the way back to the beginning. In fact, I can't remember a time when that didn't happen - lol!

This is a tree in the front yard that has been struck by lightening three - yes three - times! The black marks are where it was hit. At least half the tree came down with one of the strikes, but this one branch remains. It reminds me of how scary it was having the lightning hit that close, and how we huddled together on the couch (or in the basement, if we made it there before the storm). It also reminds me how strong the tree must be to endure such a force and still remain standing.

This last picture is of the same tree, but new life is growing from its base. It reminds me that although one part of a life may end, a new one can begin.