Do you remember or do you think you remember

The other day my daughter was telling me about something she remembers from her childhood.  She went into great detail and I was honestly impressed that she had such a great memory.  She does really.  There are times she recounts a dream, in it's entirety.  I've learned not say anything to her that I don't want her to remember because, she will.  My sister is the same; she remembers things that most people don't even notice happened right before their eyes.

I remember stuff too you know.  Like the time I colored on the wall in the living room behind my dad's red chair.  You know why I remember?  Right!  I got one of the very few spankings I ever received. 

I also remember a night I found myself laying on the bathroom floor telling my Aunt Camille she didn't love me...you know why I remember?  Ahh,ha she spanked me too.  I guess your not supposed to tell people who love you that they don't cause if you do they're overcome with this crazy desire to spank you.  I remember that Auntie!

I also remember being about 8 years old, sitting on the back porch of my parents house.  I was wearing a white button down shirt and some old brown cowboy boots (whose were those anyway?).  I was eating white bread with refried pinto beans on it.  The memory is so clear.  Oh! Maybe that's because I have a picture of it.....and there, my friends is the key.  Not that all memories come from old photos but, I wonder if I'd remember much of anything from my childhood if there weren't pictures to trigger the memories.

I don't know about you but my family has so many pictures.  My parents had pictures that go waaaay back.  Way, way back.  It's a beautiful thing too.  My brother Rusty (Daniel A. Leonard V)has done a wonderful job of putting some some of those pictures on a webpage (it's a geneology); click on his link and check them out by clicking on the highlit names.  I'm actually quite surprised he didn't put more pictures on there.

 

Daniel A. Leonard 2nd

In the 40's, my mom and her cousins used to take the best pictures.  Looking at them makes me wish I could have been there.  I loved the clothing and the poses they chose.  They'd all climb on top a car and strike a pose or theres the picture in someone's living room with them posed around the piano.  Just makes you wanna jump into the picture cause looking at it you can almost feel the mood.

I remember the pictures my dad used to take of us when we were kids.  Most of us wore flat tops....Oh, wait, that was no flat top, that was my dad cutting our heads off.  His artistic abilities must have been somewhere else because it wasn't in picture taking.  Then again, maybe he just didn't like what he saw and did a little editing.  Thanks Dad, you really could have told me the hairdo needed some changing.

For a while there I stopped taking as many pictures...what a mistake!  They're like family gold.  No family should be without them.  So if by some chance you've put the camera in a drawer or closet, get that sucker out and start snapping away.  It's less expensive these days and so much easier to get to.  Do it!  Your family memories are slipping by you if you don't.  The kids need to see the pictures and videos of themselves so they can remember just how cute and dorky they once were.  Sorry, I was probably thinking of one of my elementary school pictures with my hair standing up in the middle of my head.  Can't look at it without laughing and neither can anyone else.

Go on now, go make some memories!