For some reason, none of the pictures in the video really resonate with me. I've watched it several times and they just don't stir any of the emotions I feel when I think of my childhood or even my adult life. Maybe it's because my memories of my childhood are scattered and incomplete - impressions more than anything. Or a combination of repeated memories. I spent alot of time during the summer with my grandmother. The weeks were basically the same - Monday was Catholic Novena and taking lunch to my grandfather's sausage plant. Wednesday was also lunch at the plant. Each afternoon was spent at my aunt's house. She was bed-ridden and could do very little for herself. My grandmother would help her lie down for a nap each afternoon and then take a nap herself in one of the living room chairs. I would read.
Childhood was full of trips to Daytona Beach, Sunday breakfast with my grandparents after mass, trips to Disney (including one memorable time when we lost the car in that vast no-man's-land of a parking lot), trips with my other grandmother to Clearwater and Lake Wales.
I'm still puzzled why the pictures don't elicit any emotional response. Maybe they seem too generic to me. They remind me too much of of sit-coms telling me that the perfect friendships should be built around a coffee-shop or a neat apartment. It's also possible that I am not appreciating the photos because I've never had children and, over the years, have had very little to do with children. I'm not really conflicted by this - part was decision and part was life circumstance. It just means that pictures of my cats tend to elicit more emotional response from me. (Yes, if I weren't allergic to them, I could easily become the crazy cat lady down the street.)
I'm going to get some childhood photos from my Mom and put together my own slide show of childhood memories and post it on this blog. I hope I do as nice a job as Colleen did.
I do believe I can answer the questions about laughter and what makes me laugh pretty easily.
Mom and I can start laughing over the silliest things and be incapable of stopping for many many minutes.
Jon Stewart but not Stephen Colbert
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Life of Brian, not so much)
Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part 1
Young Frankenstein (rolling on the floor)
Comic strips
I just had another childhood memory - Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. Talk about rolling on the floor.
1 comment:
Hi Sheri, it is interesting that the photos 'do nothing' for you but I do not think it is anything to worry about. You seem able to access plenty of memories through other means, and I think that is what this is about; what kind of shaping power did place/time/people have on you growing up (and, of course, that shaping power would not have ceased just because you went ahead and grew up). Losing the car at disneyland happened to me, too, when I was a kid, but since my first real kiss happened there, too, in the 7th grade, I have forgiven the place for eating the car.
Post a Comment