Memories

As I sit here on a porch in the same place I grew up vacationing as a little girl, I watch my husband leave to head to the bakery with my little girl. In fact, it’s the same bakery that was there when I was a kid. I watch her excitement as she leaves with her daddy and wonder what treats they will surprise us with.

As I watch the car head down the street, I think to myself that I’m so grateful to be giving her these memories. This is a time of year we reflect on memories, and it seems that now more than ever as we are in the holiday season, memories are embedded with so much of what we are, and the traditions held dear in families. I’m constantly reminded by things that I did as a little girl with my family, and I always make sure to tell my kids why we do some of the things that we do and where it originated from within our own family.

Mary brought back treats from The Golden Brown Bakery, the same bakery I went to as a kid. (Photo provided by Megan Rathz)

I want my kids to grow up knowing there were people before them that not only made up who they are, but also who their parents are to this day. I want them to make their own memories and, understand the traditions in our family, and appreciate why they’re sacred.

I have so many memories of being dropped off at school and in the car on the way there, my folks would have The Bob & Tom Show on the radio. Half the time they had to turn it down because of a suggestive, yet hilarious, skit being too much for my little ears at the time.

Sometimes when they play older skits on the show, I wonder if any of these were ones my dad would listen to and laugh. I realize now that the voices I grew up hearing in the car on the radio on the way to school are the same voices my kids now hear as they begin their mornings. And much like my folks, I’m having to turn the radio down, so they don’t hear something I don’t want to explain to them later. Yes, I love The Bob & Tom Show, but I think a lot of it is the comfortable familiarity of hearing something I’ve heard my entire life.

There’s a Van Morrison album called Avalon Sunset that my parents used to put on when I was a kid at dinner. I remember my dad would prop the CD up on the stereo and the front of the album cover was a swan in a lake. I find myself playing that same album often when we eat dinner, but instead of my dad’s stereo system encased in a glass case with a door, we just tell Alexa to play it. My dad would think we were living in the space age with Alexa.

I sit around our dining table and look at my kids eating their dinner with the same music that once played when I was their age. It gives me peace and makes me feel connected to my memories.

As we head into Thanksgiving and the holidays, I find myself reflecting on and remembering times from my childhood and wonder what memories my kids will pass on to their own families one day.

Will they make homemade noodles with their kids just like my husband does with his grandmother’s recipe? Will they use turkey plates like my mom and me for their Thanksgiving spread? Will they decorate their house for Christmas early like my husband and me, or will they wait until after Thanksgiving? Will my daughter be excited to decorate her table when she hosts the holidays? Will my children be excited whenever they see a cardinal like my husband and me?

May we all make memories as we head into this holiday season that we will hold dear for years to come. May this be a time to set aside the things that divide us and enjoy the precious time we have together.

Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.