Memories & Nostalgia

Today is the anniversary of the passing of Jimmy Hendrix, one of the classic and best at playing the electric guitar. When I think of his music, the song that comes to mind is one that probably comes to the mind of many from my generation, the “Star Spangled Banner” as he played it at Woodstock.

Was I there? No, I was looking ahead to my Senior year in High School, working at a summer camp in New Hampshire at the time. It was the talk of the summer, though, since it wasn’t all that far away and all of us knew someone that was going, we knew about the traffic, and how it was affecting some that were trying to get to camp. But I can’t say I was fully into the culture of the time yet, a bit of that that came into my life later, I’ll have to share about that one day.

Back to Hendrix, it’s a shame that such talent had to be snuffed out due to drug overdose, sad, what a waste, but here’s Hendrix, immortalized on video.  First a brief interview, then “The Star Spangled Banner” as only Hendrix could play it…listen for the “bombs bursting in air”…the anti-war (Viet Nam) movement was in full swing at the time, but in another time and place, the song could have considered pretty patriotic.

Today I was listening to Sarah Palin speak in Iowa, and again she mentioned her desire to bring awareness to the unique challenges that those who have “special needs” family members, or family members with “disabilities”, face on a day to day basis.

This touches a very special place in my heart because I have a brother who is in his 40’s who is a special needs adult.  The memories from his past life are a mixed bag that contains many different emotions. Maybe, over time, I’ll share some of those things with you, and you can share your situations if you’ve “been there” in comments here, if you like.

For now, may I just say that it is wonderful to see that someone is bringing this issue to the forefront on a national level!   After just finishing spending several years helping my family and brother by researching how to best meet my brother’s future needs, I have learned and seen a lot, and there is a lot of need in this area.

My brother, John, is in his 40’s, he has a delightful disposition, and a wonderful smile, because my Mom, who will be 80 in a couple of weeks, has been devoted to him and his care.  John cannot talk, he can walk, but not easily, he can’t hear in one ear, and can only hear a bit in the other.  All of this from a bout with Spinal Meningitis when he was a baby, while we were on vacation as a family at my Grandparents.

After the doctors realized the damage that had been done to my 6 month old baby brother from this illness that kept him in the hospital for most of the summer, and often with a 50/50 chance of living, they told my mother that it would be best if she just put him in an institution, that he would never amount to anything.  That was not to be, and because of it, my brother was an active member of our family for his whole life.  He is capable of caring for many of his own personal needs, getting a bowl of cereal, vacuuming, dressing himself, so many little helpful things that would never have happened had he been raised in an institution.  There is a lot deep inside my brother that you see in his eyes that may never come out until we can talk to one another in heaven when all things are made new…what a day that will be!

Recently, after a lot of work and even more prayer, we were able to move my brother into a Christian group home, the one that we hoped and prayed he would live in, and he is happy there. Best of all, he doesn’t live far from all of us.

Was it always an easy road? Far from it, but it is through the challenges in life that we learn the most, isn’t it?

My son will be 27 this week, tomorrow, in fact.  When my children were young, each birthday I’d tell them the story of their birth in great detail, but now that they are both adults, that doesn’t go over as big as it used to…oh I can get away with it now and then.  I was just thinking today about how we chose each of their names.

First we decided that if we had a boy and a girl, we would give each our middle name.  Then we had to settle on first names.  My husband had a baby brother who only lived a very short time after his birth, but he was buried with a name.  We decided to bring that name to life again by giving it to our son.   That decision was an easy one.  2 years later it was time to chose a name for a boy or girl…which turned out to be a girl.  I had a name picked out up until 2 weeks before her birth, when suddenly a name scrolled up on the credits on a favorite TV show that I couldn’t resist..it became hers, along with my middle name.

It’s kind of nice to shared a piece of ourselves with each of our children in more ways than one.

Here’s a more “recent” memory, at least for someone my age, that would be the movie “WarGames“. I really hate to think that a movie from the 1980’s is a “long ago” memory, but here we are, 25 years later!! Where did that time go? I had two toddlers running around the house at the time the movie was made, and we opted wait until we could view it at home on video, and have since watched it on TV, when our children, especially our son, was old enough to enjoy it with us.

In the story, the then-young star, Matthew Broderick, hacks into the US Military’s war computer, and plays “a game”, a bit bigger game than he anticipated, with their Computer. At the time the movie was out, home computers where not nearly as commonplace as they are now, in fact we didn’t have one, so it was fascinating to think that something like this was even possible. It’s an intense story, and guess what, you can view it again on the big screen at a special event AND see a preview of the sequel, “WarGames: The Dead Code” at select theaters throughout the USA next week on Thursday, July 24th. It’s a one-night event, and will include interviews with the film’s creators, AND members of the cast, including Broderick and Ally Sheedy, and the crew. Sounds like great fun, stop by and see if WarGames is playing in your area.

When I was a child, attending church on Sunday was an important…in fact vital…part of our life. I was thinking back trying to remember what the first church I remember attending was. I do remember my parents taking me to Hydewood Park Baptist Church when I was just a toddler. Memories that far back are vague, a little blond toddler walking among giants down halls, up stairways, that is about all that comes to mind.

Before that, I am told we attended the St. James Episcopal Church just around the corner from our home, but I was too young to remember that. My husband had a job down that way a bit over a year ago, and took some pictures of the old neighborhood, including the Episcopal church you see pictured, celebrating it’s 300th birthday at that time. It was later, when I started school, that our family attended New Durham Chapel. We attended there until our family moved from the Nixon/Edison New Jersey area to where my mother lives today in Hillsdale, NJ. Then there were other churches that followed, but the important thing was not the building, or the denomination, or anything but being with people who loved the Bible, believed what it taught, and worshiped the Lord….that remains true to this day.

I love attending a particular auction a few towns away from me, and visiting auctions online. In my book, there is nothing like spotting an old item from my childhood or teen years that conjures up memories that have been buried for many years.

Not many my age can forget the Beatles. I clearly remember the first time I heard about them, girls gathered around at a private school I went to talking about 4 guys with long hair that would be coming to America. I was somewhere between 6th and 8th grade at the time. Then they came, they were on the Ed Sullivan show, my parents looked at me with strange looks as I watched clips on the news of girls screaming and simply losing it over the Beatles. Of course we all had our favorite Beatle, and a collection of Beatle Cards and albums. Every once in a while I run across an old Beatle card, and wish I’d never thrown away the huge stack of them I used to have so many years ago, and wish I still had my old vinyl records that found there way to other hands when we did a mass clean-out of our house.

So what does one do when they want to track down some of their favorite music memorabilia? Rare Vinyl Records and Memorabilia can be found at 991.com, search for whatever is missing from your collection, or start that old collection you remember so well all over again with items that are in mint or near-mint condition. In fact I found a LOT of Beatles items, old and new.

What are you looking for? Stop by at 991.com, and look carefully, they have a LOT available, and some great search features to help you narrow down your search. Great site!

Summer vacations were something we always looked forward to when we were children, they were spent at my grandparents every year. It sounds like such a simple vacation compared to the elaborate vacations many take these days, but we loved it and I don’t have a single regret. My grandparents were wonderful, as I’ve probably shared in other posts.

They lived on property surrounded by woods, with what I thought was a HUGE hill in the yard.  Everything seems bigger when you look back on it from the perspective of an adult. At the top of the hill was a metal shed that always smelled like gardening…manure probably, but it was a good, clean smell.

In the shed was a box that contained fun in the form of rolled up yellow plastic. We’d take it out, unroll it down the hill, and then attach a hose to the top so there was a steady flow of water, and we’d slide down the hill on the Slip ‘n Slide to our hearts content. Oh yes, there were times when the water wasn’t flowing as nicely as it could, and you’d get a nice “belly burn” on the plastic, but it was fun as can be and among the treasured vacation memories stored away in my mind.

Slip ‘n Slides have come a long way, now there are Slip ‘N Slide Mega Sharks, can you imagine? Now you can feel like you are escaping the jaws of a shark when you slide down the hill, but for us, just a plain piece of yellow plastic was enough.

In our town it was the last day of school for the young ones, and a flood of memories came to mind as a result, I’ll have more for you. When my husband and I went to my Grandparents house after Grandad passed, about 10 years after Gram, we took a look in that shed, and sure enough, the box was still there. Now the house and property have been completely redone, but pictures and happy memories remain.