In art, drawing in perspective is to give a solid object on a two-dimensional plane the right scale of its height, depth, and width with its position to other things from various points of view. How about we do that with a memory today?
Fall Is the Season for Remembrance
Fall could not get here soon enough for me. I just have so many fond memories with my family. I felt that the latter part of the year was when our family was at our best. I grew up in Omaha, NE away from my extended family. It seemed that when the chill of the season started to set in the warmth both in emotion and temperature came rushing to the surface. I felt a lot of the tension my parents felt raising a family away from their familial support and the stress of perfection finally ease. I couldn’t tell if it was the year starting to wind down where work activities slowed or the pickup of the season’s festivities that contributed to this…well ‘peace’, but it didn’t matter, I indulged.
My brother and I would rake all the leaves in our yard into multiple piles and jump into each one and we had plenty of trees. Each year, we would go to this farm that had all the themes: pumpkin patch, apple bobbing, hayrides, fair foods, and this haunted house that each year me and my mom could never get past the first scene! I believe I was 11 or 12 years old when I finally made it through and once was enough! Oh, but the best part of this farm was that they made this special blend of spices that took apple cider to a whole new level.
A Home a long way from Home
Now, Thanksgiving was a whole new level of togetherness. You see, my parents were born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. This meant that every night, we had a very flavorful homecooked dinner. How do you top that for a Thanksgiving feast. My parents always found a way to do that.
But what was special was how we all had our part. My mother was up first doing all of the food preparation, then my dad sauntered in to give her a hand. My brother and I sat on the sofa watching movies until my mother called for us to set the table. After that we would place the dishes around the table…just enough for the four of us. We said Grace and passed the food around. We complimented the food and played a rhyming game before it was all over, and the food needed to be packed up. It just seemed so fast, perhaps that’s why we looked forward to it every year.
I remember wondering why we never decorated for Fall. My mom would tell me, the stores didn’t put out Fall decorations. When I got married, I remember setting off on a mission to crack this mystery. And I did! It wasn’t that there were no decorations, we were just always too late. Fall decorations start in late July and we always started looking in September.
The Impression of a Memory
These memories I carry on with my little family. I still haven’t cracked the apple cider spice recipe but I make a mean warm apple cranberry cider that my family asks for each year. My brother and I with our families make our annual trip to the hot Houston pumpkin patch. I make special dishes for Thanksgiving and my daughter is my #1 helper for Fall decoration shopping. We don’t have to rake up leaves or have the sweater weather, but the warmth is still there. I’ve kept that spirit alive and I hope that my next generation carries on with their own variation. But it’s just fine if they don’t. My memories are enough for a lifetime!