Memories, Like the Corners of My Mind
The third bedroom of my townhouse was a den, but when I bought a laptop, it turned into a storage room. We are now turning it into the “lounge,” which will house an LCD TV and our XBox360 and Wii and DVD player. I came to this decision after realizing that my living room would never be clean again until my daughter leaves for college. Too long to wait. So move the entertainment upstairs and out of the way. And thus, her messiness too. (Oh yea, and I still have to save enough for the LCD TV).
I cleaned that room for six hours straight (don’t like that word) today. Amazingly, after nine hours of sleep, I had great energy. I even forgot to eat all day. There is still a lot to be done, but I rediscovered some great treasures.
Treasure one: ME at age 15-16ish. Living in Las Vegas, going to Rancho High School. My daughter and her two black friends (the only two in her school…not exaggerating here) kept saying how pretty I was. Gee, thanks. (Just proving how old I look now.)
They asked a lot about the straight (again, that word) hair. I told them the girls back then had long straight hair parted in the middle. And many of the black kids had Afros and would keep picks in their hair (we were all jealous). I told them to ask their dad. He is a few years younger than me, but should remember. And I had great flashbacks of all of the white kids moving the tables to the outer edges of the student union (cafeteria) when “Play That Funky Music, White Boy” by Wild Cherry would start playing during lunch. We would watch some great dancing.
I also remembered a Mormon approved youth activity in about 1975 where we went door-to-door and distributed anti Equal Rights Amendment information. But that must be an incorrect memory, because the Mormon church doesn’t interfere in politics.
Treasure two: The program for my Mormon seminary graduation. Yes, I spoke. Yes, it was a spiritual experience. Yes, I was the Utah state scripture chase champion. We moved to Utah my senior year, and I hated the “Utah Mormons,” those who were good on Sunday, and naughty the rest of the week. At least that was our perception in Las Vegas.
Treasure three: A box of drawings my grandmother made, I am guessing in the 30s. Very cool. I need to matte and frame some of them, as they are wonderful. I can image her escaping through her art. Actually, she did escape in a way because she married my grandfather at 16 to get out of the house. She wasn’t even pregnant. She died in 1991 and I miss her. There have been times I pick up the phone to call her and tell her some great news, and then realize she isn’t around any more. I don’t remember how I ended up with this art, but I need to share it with my artist niece. She would get a kick out of it.
So today was a great cleaning day. Not because of how much I actually got done (well, maybe a little), but because of all the great treasures I got to reacquaint myself with. And the lessons learned from my experiences today? I should clean more often.
Filed under: History, Life Lessons, Mormon, Family, Miscellany
