Picture of a Childhood Memory

     I suddenly felt so hollow, so empty inside as I gazed upon the abandoned house. Weeds had grown up almost 2 feet high in what was once a welcoming front yard.  The front sidewalk and driveway were completey missing except for maybe a few crumbling pieces of concrete amongst the weeds.

Most of the windows were boarded over and the windows that were left had several panes broken out letting the country air into an empty bedroom.  No curtains were hung in the windows, just blackness in stark contrast to the summer sun. Seeing my friend Kelly's old house, that was obviously abandoned, brought a flood of memories back.  The tears welled up and I could not help but let them run down my cheeks. I wiped them away quickly with the back of my hand. I was so shocked  that this was the house I had several "sleep-overs" with my friend Kelly in.  I remember sitting upstairs in her bedroom, listening to records-mostly the Carpenters and the Beach Boys.  We would sit and talk  about boys, listen to music, do our nails and wile away the hours.  Looking at it now, her house made me feel so incredibly old.  How could it look like this when my memories of these events seem like they just happened last summer, when the reality is closer to 40 years ago. Sometimes the reality of change is hard to cope with, yet I am a strong believer in the fact that everyone should have the comfort of childhood memories to cherish. These memories provide a shelter, a security blanket, that not only defines who we are today, but allows us to cope with today's struggles.  Certain memories help us to keep things in perspective.
     It has been said "You can never go Home again...." and perhaps that is true.
Nevertheless when memories come back, like seeing the dilapidated house it sometimes can crush your spirit.  Sometimes we have to try to keep the good memories alive and not let a current experience chip away and erode at the sanctity of our childhood memories.  The grief I felt that day is my way of trying to cling to those memories so I will have a little bit of young girl left in me.  Everyone should have childhood memories that can warm their soul and provide for them an accountability of their existence today. What we become as adults and how we live in day to day routines is established at least partially,by how we lived our lives as children.  That being said, the importance of the preservation of certain happy childhood memories are so very important to our sense of well-being and our overall mental health.  The passage of time is inevitable, but cherishing times past is plain good for the soul.  The painter Grandma Moses summed it up so well:

     "What a strange thing memory is, and hope; one looks backward, the other forward. The one is of today, the other is the tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day."