As a Freshman student at a Big-Ten University, my favorite class - hands down - was ATL - American Thought And Language. I still remember the name of my professor. She was the kind of teacher/professor that inspires and encourages, even though her class was one of those large, 'cattle-call' courses that were required for all incoming Freshman. Her students were charged with voracious reading and writing copious numbers of papers. I do not remember many of the books on the reading list, but I do recall loving the challenge of writing the papers. My imagination flourished under her tutelage. Her teaching location changed every term but, no matter the distance, I followed her to each different building.
Flash forward to today, after firing up my laptop, the daily message appeared on the screen, asking me if I would like to back up my Outlook folders now and I clicked, 'back-up now', as I always do. Instantly my mind took me to the question, "If I had to back-up my memory right now, what personal folders would I choose?"
I would choose the folders where I am with my maternal grandmother; high school; the experience in California, at the age of 21, when my ear drum broke and I called my mother in the middle of the night for comfort; the times I read chapter books to my children in DePere, Wisconsin; singing the chicken song for seven hours on a wintry Christmas eve, with my SO, as we drove through the night to get to our families; watching the fireworks from our second story bedroom window; time spent as a musician and employee of the Green Bay Symphony; the days performing with my classical trio; tending geraniums on the window sills of my classroom at Aldo Leopold School in Green Bay, Wisconsin; the thousands of eggs the flies laid in our garage.....and they all hatched; the time the kids brought home acorns from the park in De Pere and put them safely away in a closet.......(acorns hatch creepy-crawlies, too); grocery shopping with my kids; cold and wet days in make-shift tents spent playing cards and drinking hot chocolate on family camping trips; meeting my grandchildren for the first time; sitting on the back deck of our aqua RV, listening to the roar of the diesels; playing web cards during the Thanksgiving weekend; Max.
The list could go on for pages but anyone reading this posting would either fall asleep or begin drawing Social Security.......if there is any left to draw.
Go back up your memory folders.................
Ancora imparo
