Store Your Happy Memories Here:

[Croix]

Dear All~

What this place is for:
This thread is a tool, a resource, and also I guess a dash of entertainment.

I’ve found that when life is grim that sometimes thoughts of past happiness can create a chink of light in the grey overwhelming press of down. They can help occupy the mind with lighter reflections.

With that in view I invite people to set down a brief passage describing some happy event they look back to with fondness and peace.

They - and others too - can then return to it when they feel the need to glean a little warmth.

It is not a place for gloomy or dire tales, those can go elsewhere.

What to do:
Just set out, as simply as you like, your recollection of some past experience that means something good to you, something you enjoyed, something from safe times.

It can be, like my story below, anything – from an account of visiting grandparents to simply cooking and eating a melted-cheese sandwich in a favorite kitchen – you get to choose.

How to do it:
Write. Write enough so someone else can feel the mood, know what happened, find the goodness. (stop at 2,500 characters please!)

Grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation are not compulsory, just write as you can – the only important thing is the content - not literary merit. Short or long - it does not matter.


I hope you enjoy, contribute and find a little distraction here when you need it.

Croix

[Doolhof]

Driving home from work one hot summer's night in my Holden (forget the model) that really needed some mechanical attention. The 4 cylinder sounded like a V8, I was revving it at the lights so it didn't stall on me.

A car full of cool looking dudes rocked up next to me in a flash looking, engine thumping car. One shouted out at me, "Hey Honey, what do you have under the hood?" I shouted back "An engine! What about you?"

Roars of laughter all round. The lights turned green, off we screamed, well as much as you can in a 50 k.m. zone!

Cheers all from Dools

[Croix]

Thank you Nat and Mrs Dools,

Think of 'music' plus being younger reminds me of something I really enjoyed as a kid at one school, Singing Practice.

This always had two masters down the front and may rows of boys filling the hall. One master was missing a leg from the war and sat that the piano, the other stood in the front and conducted. He was a perfectionist and would spend a good ten minutes getting the 'H' in Hallelujah exactly right (Breath out! Feel your stomach! And again ...).

The concise clarity of the words, the ancient music, the ethereal effect of the trebles all made for a different world from Latin, maths and musty classrooms. I still have my music books even now.

Croix

[Croix]

Dear All~

Nat was talking of painting under the supervision of the very young. I remember when we had our own house (well us and the bank). In our eyes it was amazing, though to anyone else it was a vetical-board almost-shack.

The offspring was small but adventurous, navigating through life on a sort of a round spaceship contraption with castors and a hole in the middle for the driver.

We wanted the living room to look good but could not afford wallpaper, and it needed a pattern to take the eye off the rough parts.

There was this marvelous roller with a pattern on it. You rolled out the pattern on white walls and it looked pretty good. I also saw that copper marine undercoat gave a very classy finish, so that's what I used.

The offspring investigated the roller and for a while we had an toddler with a copper hand. It is marvelous how may coppery smears a determined youngster can place before being scooped up and cleaned.

A good time

Croix

[CMF]

I was feeling really low last night and then saw a song from the 80's on tv with a video clip that reminded me of my teenage years. Daryl Braithwaite - One Summer. I started to cry, felt very lonely and emotional but them remembered I had this boyfriend when I was 17. I used to go away to the beach with my cousins and he'd be there too. Didn't last long, can't remember why. Maybe cos I wasn't allowed out or to have a boyfriend and he didn't live close by . Just before I was 18 I was in a serious car accident, nearly died. When he heard he came to my house to visit! He wanted to take me out shopping that night and my parents let me go. They'd never met him and they still let me go. Hehe, I had a few boys come to visit after that car accident and take me out, to get me out of the house. It was really really sweet of them. I wasn't allowed to go out or have a boyfriend in my teen years but I knew a few boys asi went to an all girls school across the road from an all boys school. I worked in a record shop and many of them came in after school so I got to know them.

To think that after finishing high school and hearing of the accident they would take the time to come knocking on our front door. There were no mobile phones and they didn't have my home number so they took a chance and just showed up. It was 30 years ago but They cared enough to see if I was ok. My parents were very accepting too and welcomed them into our home. It touches my heart.

cmf

[Quercus]

Ah Croix those memories are so lovely! And yours too CMF.

Some snippets I want to remember...

We sit in the clear shallows. A limestone cove shelters us from waves. Miss almost 3 is all chaos hair in her Dory bathers and Mr 4 shows off his yellow Paw Patrol rashie. Skin plastered white with sunscreen. Big smiles. Lots of teeth.

And seaweed! They run to give their Dad seaweed "hair" (my suggestion... naturally). In return I get handfulls of wet sand in my hair. Giggles. Splashes.

White sand. Fluffy. Beautiful and clean. The boys look in the rockpools at crabs while we make sandcastles. Decorate with shells. Bury our legs in the sand. Dig "moats" until we reach water. Down the beach a group of teenage boys have climbed the dunes and take turns sliding down into the water. Miss almost 3 laughs. My stomach churns in memory (tried rolling down tall dunes yesterday and felt so nauseous all afternoon). I watch them and laugh too... When did you get old huh?

Mr 4 sees and demands to try too. Hubby wisely takes him and the skimmer disc to a smaller dune. He sits and holds on. White sand sprays out as he shoots down down into the water.

Fourth try is a faceplant into the sand. Hand in hand with Dad, straight to the water to wash off the sand and after a cuddle a gentle push to try again.

A puppy comes to greet us. French bulldog. The kids are in love! They are all gentle hands and giggles as she has her first ever swim.

Waist deep I get the right angle to see the jellyfish. Box shape. Four dark points. Four long tentacles. I usher the kids out it's late anyway. To the car and they are asleep before we even leave. The debate begins! Hubby insists box jellyfish aren't this far south. I know what I saw. Somehow this turns into questions about the life cycle of jellyfish. Medusa and polyp come to mind he teases playfully at my poor memory. No reception means no google to cheat! We make up a theoretical idea until we can check the facts.

We stop for emus to cross the road. We stop to see the expanses of yellow verticordia flowers. The kids sleep. We take turns to drive. And flirt and laugh.

[Croix]

Dear CMF~

Thank you for remembering your illness and the boys. I see you went to an all girl school. All my schools were for boys only and I think it did me a disservice, it took me a fair while to become comfortable with the opposite sex. Shyness and unfamiliar territory I guess. Anyway I seem to have managed:)

Croix

[Croix]

Dear Nat~

That is a lovely scene at the beach with family, I'm sure the seaweed hair was popular with everyone

Water and fronds hanging down reminds me of a boat trip. Not an ordinary one, a small rowing boat pulled into a cave out of the summer sun. Inside it was dark, wiht our eyes not quite adjusted. There was no hope of rowing, too narrow, so we were just towed along, my wife and I by ourselves.

We rounded a bend and saw little tiny lights, strung along the walls, with streamers of lights hanging down. It seemed like a host of stars, unexpected even though we were told, magic, another world.

Glow worms

Croix

[monkey_magic]

That sounds beautiful and enchanting Croix, a great memory.

Getting dressed feeling let down by yet another visit to the club for a draw. We have been to many of these already and come home empty handed. Someone else wins the money, someone else wins the car, the meat, the other prizes.

Driving to the club we pass the streets and houses.

We swipe our cards and I look around at all the people. Someone else is going to win. We take our seats.

First name is called, they get to pick a box and win the amount inside the box, it was $150. Then there are two $1000 draws. First name called is ( drum role) mine!!!! I quickly walked to the front to receive a large yellow glittery bon bon which had something inside, 20 $50 notes. The large crowd claps and I walk away relieved and content and on a high....

I won!

[Croix]

Dear MM~

Now I have absolutely no logical reason for this (other than your indomitable spirit) but I think you have some big wins ahead of you, though not so much in the way of money

Croix (go figure - a psychic walrus)

[Doolhof]

Happy Memory: Growing up we had a dog, cat, hens and ducks.

In the mornings the drake would come inside the house through the doggy door and quack away until someone decided to go out and feed him.

That drake would play with us in the garden like a puppy!

(Unrelated) A friend of mine keeps telling me how friendly cows are! There was a real life cow at the nativity play I attended recently. After the performance I went up to give the cow a bit of a rub! The darn thing totally freaked out and must have been turning her milk into yogurt!

That cow had not read the "I will be a happy cow memo!"

Cheers from Dools