Today I received another entry in the Vacations and Families and Couples, Oh My! series. Thanks go out to Trace, who maintains a blog called Tracing My Steps. She writes:We took our kids to the beach yesterday - one we'd never been to. And while I was there, I thought about how much our vacation time helps me to think about the things that I cherished as a kid. So yesterday, I spent lots of time reflecting on my own beach memories. My parents never took us to the beach locally, my dad worked crazy hours and so we had a pool in our backyard to keep us cool. But my grandparents lived in FL and going there to visit was always the highlight of my year. My grandmother and I were very close. When I get out of my car at the beach, the smell of the sea air immediately reminds me of her - our early morning beach walks, her sea shell collection, the way she plastered me with sun tan lotion, the lessons she taught me about life. I'm so grateful for the way the beach reminds me of her.
That's a touching story, which is why I wanted to put it up on the front page so everyone could enjoy it. It's amazing, isn't it, how our senses can trigger memories? Like that song that reminds of the high school dance, or the smell of baby powder transporting us back to when our own children were small. Thanks again, Trace.
ReplyDeletethis is a good thing - especially if you have good memories of vacations
ReplyDeletebut if you don't - then i suggest make them up! or gleen out of the vacations you did take, the good parts...
thanks for the story!
Thanks Andrew, I'm flattered that you would post my story on your blog. The first things that caught my eye is that the water in your pic is blue like Florida's (ours is green and brown here in New England!), and the pic also has those big fat Florida clouds (my grandmother used to play this game where you had to find animal shapes in the clouds...). OK, enough reminiscing for one day!
ReplyDeleteStay in touch.
I often feel I HAVE to go to the beach, or I HAVE to go out somewhere - in order to create memories. I can't get over that, even though I know, by forcing it, I will never create joyful memories like I had when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteMy parents rarely took us on vacations. It became such a big deal for me when I had kids. I realized fast that climbing on the rocks at Nubble Light in Maine was the greatest time for my children. Of course, I spent hundreds first.
ReplyDeleteI have the best childhood memories ever...considering we couldn't afford vacations or much of anything really. When you can play Monopoly or Parchesi all the time because your mother wants to and your dad gets a raise so he buys soda and chips a few times a year - I don't regret never seeing Disney or another country. I has it all.