Return of Memoryfest - Day 23/31

[bironic]

23. Elementary School

The first and possibly only time I stayed overnight at my aunt and uncle's house, I slept in my cousin R.'s room in a sleeping bag on the floor. She had a poster of a Tyrannosaurus Rex animatronic model from some museum that loomed over us on the opposite wall. What I remember most vividly about that night is both of us going up to her room at bedtime, getting into bed, and R. turning off the light. When she did that I asked her, surprised and with a little pang of homesickness or loneliness or disappointment, "Don't your parents tuck you in?"

Comments

[pynelyf.livejournal.com]

my second submission: http://pynelyf.livejournal.com/33310.html

I surprised myself by how many details I was able to recall...

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

When I was in third grade my parents were part of a bowling league. Every Thursday they'd leave the house at 5:30, have dinner out with the other people on their team, and then bowl from 7 to 9. My mother's parents (Nan and Pop) would already be there when I got home from school at 4:30. I'd play games with Nan or listen to Pop tell stories until my parents left and then it was homework time. I still don't completely know my times tables because all it took was a cute pout and they'd tell me the answers instead of helping me get them myself. At bedtime, Nan would come upstairs with me, wind up one of my music boxes and sing along with it. Then she'd lie down with me and stay there at least until I fell asleep. I don't know if she stayed around and napped until my parents came home or what, but I always fell asleep with her on Thursdays.

[crazypalefreak.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's sweet. Bless you :)

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Well, instead of jogging memories about overnights or being tucked in, this memory got me thinking about a particular set of cousins (eight kids) who lived in rural Maryland. My family used to go visit for a few days every summer, adding our gang of four kids to the mix.

Thinking of those vacations triggered a sensory memory (a little late for the discussion on that topic, but what the hell): the smell of crabs boiling. Ugh! What a stench. It permeated the house for over a day.

Even though I had helped catch the crabs (which was a lot of fun), I couldn't bring myself to eat them after smelling them cooking (not that I'm much of a seafood fan to begin with). I've never eaten anything crab related since then.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

I think the most memorable episode this reminds me of, is that time in 1989 when my maternal grandparents, Momme & Moffe (nicknames derived from the names for maternal grandparents in Danish - mormor and morfar), where staying at our house and watching my sister and I. It was late autumn. My parents were in London.
One night we were watching the news and saw those fantastic images of bits of the Berlin wall falling, of happy people streaming across the divide and into the west. People crying with happiness. It was a fantastic moment.