Visceral Memories

 

“One of my earliest memories is not so much a single instance but a sort of general recollection, and that is of the old Saturday morning routine. Getting up, having breakfast when we could tear our attention away from cartoons long enough, flipping around the dial to see which were the best shows on.

This is what I do have a particular memory of: it was a cold day, but the old wall heaters were still working and were going full blast. So, all we had on was our underwear and socks; I remember not only sliding down the hall in our socks but also sliding from the front door to the side table (this was part of the old cowboy furniture) by the opposite wall. [We would sometimes pretend we were ‘falling down the hall’ as if it were a vertical drop.]

We sat on one of those giant oval braided rugs to watch the shows, and it seems to me that it was The New Adventures of  Huckleberry Finn that was on when Pop came home with the groceries, and we scrambled to go see what he'd brought home. I remember what a highlight it was to see what kind of cereal he had got. The show dates this memory to about 1968; but it's possibly later.

The New Adventures was an early live action/animation mix; the kids were real, but when the characters entered a magical vortex in a cave while trying to escape Injun Joe (Ted Cassidy!) they went to various historical or fictional worlds where they often encountered villains who looked and acted like...Injun Joe!” – Bryan.

 

“I remember helping bring in groceries when very small and dropping a huge jar of Bama pineapple jelly on the sidewalk which promptly burst into a huge mess. (The jar, not the sidewalk!) Pop was MAD! He whooped me and made me clean it up and I remember bawling my eyes out while picking glass out of the yellow mush. Maybe this is why I don't particularly care for pineapple jelly!” – John

 

“I remember when that happened. We were all wary about glass splinters for weeks afterwards. I never liked pineapple jelly (Pop’s choice, I believe) too much anyway. Peach, with plum in second, and grape a distant third.

I remember the time I threw up once between the kitchen and the dining room after eating roast beef [even after taking Pepto-Bismol, so the mess itself was pink], and sick and nauseated and weak feeling as I was, I was forced to clean it up by myself, and wash dishes afterwards. I recall it was Mom who was the stern motivator for that one.” – Jan 2009, Finder’s Keep.

I have been gleaning through my old blogs, trying to find memories (it’s just that time of year, I guess) to bring together here, and I ran across this one. It started off well enough as a cozy winter interlude, but in the notes and comments it kind of devolved into a rough experience contest (my fault, I’m afraid). When I laid down to rest, my Dismal Bismal Roast Boast began playing on my mind so much that I woke up this morning feeling nauseated. Imagine, sick from the memory of a fifty-year-old roast! Perhaps there’s a good reason you don’t remember everything clearly, nor should you.