Mementos

My wife and I are doing the everyday chores on a Sunday and anticipating the coming start to the New Year. Back to work, back to school, and back to the routine.

So there I am folding clothes and keeping the baby from tearing up my nice neat stacks when I run across the blanket.

  When Sophia was just born there was a blanket that I remember being very fond of wrapping her in. It is very soft with bumblebees on it. Every time I see this blanket I am transported to a time when she was no bigger than my hand and I just smile.

There are Items like this everywhere in my life. I walked around my apt just to get a glimpse of a few.

The plaque.    

My grandfather carved this for my father many years ago. I ended up with it before my father passed away. It is located in my kitchen and every time I see it I am reminded of a man younger than I am now. Sitting on a lawn chair in shorts, drinking an iced tea, smoking a cigarette, laughing at a joke only he got. It is my most prized memory next to the birth of my daughter.

The cane.  

Hand carved Ebony wood with a solid silver top and lead base. A priceless piece though I know it has significant value. This Cane has the ability to evoke many fond moments. Most of these are of random trips my mother and I would take to see my Great Uncle Lewis (His Cane).  I would sit in a corner of a nursing home as he would tell amazing stories of a time I could only dream of. The other memory is of the day I was given such a unique treasure. My Aunt Shelia was cleaning up after the death of her husband and I was visiting her to help and console when she presented me with the cane. I was honored and to this day cannot remember much of the trip other than that one moment.

The Picture.  

The picture was from a time I almost do not even know anymore.  My mother was taking photography classes and snapped this picture of my father. The bug in the background was my first car and I can remember the day we picked it up. Him and I were driving what I thought was a random trip when all of a sudden it turned in to my first car buying journey. I thought I had found the greatest treasure on earth that day.

The Shirt.  

The day was March 28^th, 2001. I made my way through a series of gated corridors’ until I was finally free after six years of incarceration. Once I was released from the clutches of my mothers' hug, she began to pull the prison garb from my back. She stated she could not spend another minute looking at me in such attire. Once we got back to the hotel I was given a get out of jail free card (it is in a box) and this shirt.  I cannot wear the shirt anymore for fear of tearing it. The fabric is so thin it now has random holes on the sleeves and collar from too much wear in the first four or five years. But to this day I still reach in my closet and pull it out to remember how it felt on that day and how happy I am to be free.

I hope in twenty or thirty years you too will have such mementos to enjoy your memories.