One of my earliest memories is of a time when my parents and I were going to my aunt and uncle's for a cookout. My mom had baked a pie for us to bring along, but in the jumble of packing up a toddler and getting out the door, they left it on the kitchen counter. We were only a few blocks from home when they realized the oversight, and I remember the urgency in their voices. My mom made a quick right turn and then another and slowed to a stop in a place I had never seen. My dad jumped out of the car and ran down a hill. A minute later he returned with the pie. This dramatic crisis and its miraculous resolution have stayed with me ever since.
To this day I'm not quite sure where the shortcut my dad took is located, even though I have looked for it, most often when I find myself on that three-mile stretch of Rte 29 between my aunt and uncle's old place and the community of garden rowhouses where we lived. But I thought about that pie today when Heidi and I took 2-year-old Oliva out for a pizza lunch.
We walked from her parents' townhouse over to a nearby restaurant, and on the way back we decided to take a different route. Our pathway took us on a little trail behind some of the buildings in their community, and Liv was interested in the crows and squirrels and flowers. She was absolutely stunned when we rounded a corner and entered their little courtyard. Clearly, she was clueless as to where we were, and the surprise made her giggle in delight.
I laughed, too, and I wondered for a moment if maybe that memory might still be with her in 60 years.
Life Lesson: Toast to the ones here today. Toast to the ones that we lost on the way, 'cause the drinks bring back all the memories, and the memories bring back, memories bring back you. ~Maroon 5 "Memories"
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