A Very Nice Visit With My Parents

Last December, my parents moved to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. My sister relocated for a great job in the hotel industry and my parents moved with she and my brother-in-law. They live in the small town of Youngsville in a wonderful rural setting. When I was there earlier this week, all the leaves on the hardwood trees were turning yellow and red and it was beautiful. Two weeks ago my parents celebrated birthdays, 82 and 91. It was fun to be there so close to their birthdays. This was my first visit to their new home.

My dad has a lot trouble hearing, so our conversations were very short, but I was able to spend a lot of time with my mom, catching up on their move, all of our relatives that we do not see very often and catching her up on my family and all the things we are up to. The interesting thing was all the "spin off" conversations that a memory or an event took us on. I had several questions about the Spanish speaking church that I grew up in and that conversation brought back some neat memories. She reminded me of getting pulled over by a motorcycle policeman right in front of the the church because I pulled out in front of him without signaling or checking to see if anyone was coming. As I recall, I didn't get a ticket because I didn't have a license yet, just my permit. Another memory that I remember was a treat that happened every once in a while when we came home from our evening church service. It was usually fairly late and everyone was hungry. We stopped at a hamburger place where you could get a "bag of burgers for a buck" and a "bag of fries for a buck". For two dollars, we had a feast when we got home from church.

We reminisced about people that we had known and lost contact with, and people that have come back into our lives, largely with digital technology like Facebook. My memory of many of these folks was like I knew them many years ago. I was jarred back to reality more than once when I asked how old someone was now and my mom would say "I think they are in their eighties, or late seventies". Yikes, I remember them in their 20s and 30s. I suppose that some day in the next decade or two, I'll sit with my children and we'll do the same kind of reminiscing. I'll shock them with how old the people are that they remember, and we'll share great memories from every generation. One day, probably sooner than later, I won't be able to do this anymore with my parents. So I am very grateful for another opportunity to do that this week. We made plans to bring Kathy and our kids at home next summer to see them. I hope we can all do the same kind of reminiscing. I think it is really good for us to remember where we came from. It helps clarify where were are going.