Memorial Day Swamp Fest

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s a day to remember the people who sacrificed their lives for our country. But for me personally, Memorial Day is a double entendre. My late mother’s birthday is this weekend, and my family gets together to put flowers on her grave stone. So, it’s alway a weekend of memories for me. I try to honor my memories of mom by celebrating life. I try to do things that build new memories, like taking a hike and experiencing a sunrise over a hidden lake. Or just BBQ with friends and cooking them a good meal. 

Some of my favorite memories of mom are sitting at the table in my first place and playing cards while listening to Johnny Cash and Elvis records on my record player. Also, when I was pre school age, she would make fancy chocolates, like Carmel turtles and peanut butter eggs in molds, then sell them. I got to be her assistant melting the chocolate. It came in huge cardboard boxes full of little chocolate discs.  I can still smell them. That was probably the deep seeded impetus for my love of cooking, it was a fun memory shared with mom. And, I can still physically feel the last hug I ever gave my mom. 

Single moments get burned into your memory where they live so vividly. Watching a shooting star streak across the sky in Jamaica. When I was 14, watching with my dad from a top a cliff at Yellow Stone park, a mother moose escort each of her calves across a river at sunrise. Dancing uninhibited with Leslie at the Cattaraugus Creek in the sunshine to Honky Tonk music. The sights, sounds, smells, emotions of these moments all come back in an instant.

Share some of your favorite memories of simple things or anyone you want to speak of to keep their memory alive. 

Get out there and live life. Have fun Swampers!