Memories of Another Time

 Driving down rural M66 in Michigan, looked all too familiar to me, like I had been here before. I am sure I have seen this route in another time, but when? Looking around the rolling hills as we traveled down the road, these farms and fields were so familiar to me, but I had never been here, never traveled this part of Michigan before, I was sure of it. I never lived on a farm, or knew anyone who did. When was I here? I did not remember ever traveling this road, but here I was sitting beside my husband in the car watching all these familiar memories floating through my mind.

I asked my husband to slow down, I want to take this all in. I told him, I've been here before, I'm sure of it, he asked when was I here? I could not recall my childhood memories of a farm, and yet, flooding through my mind I saw everything we saw today, my mind was like a computer, flashing through time, transporting all these sights and sounds; faster and faster they came. Searching the memories of my mind categorizing each memory as it was being flipped through a rolodex file in my mind, the memories were flipping faster, spinning like a bicycle wheel; until I yelled out STOP!

My husband looked at me asking what was going on? I have to stop a moment and recall those memories from my childhood and ponder for a moment where I was when I last saw these sights. Were going to fast- I can't keep up. We pulled over to the side of the road, my husband is so kind he accommodates me with his willingness to give in to my whims.  

Martha, I need to get us off the road it's not safe to sit here. He pulls ahead until he finds a church parking lot nearby and pulls in. No one is around, it's a beautiful spring afternoon, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, not a cloud in the sky. As he parked the car I closed my eyes trying to recall another time. George stepped out of the car, he said he was going to walk around and enjoy the afternoon sunshine.  

Keeping my eyes closed, setting silently in the car I could not put my finger on it, where were these memories coming from? As I sat there trying desperately to recall another place- another time, my memories faded as quickly as they came. I thought stopping would help me process them, help me recall where I had been. Feeling a bit defeated, I decided to go find George, see what he had found.

I walked up to the church following the sidewalk around to the back yard where I was sure I would find George. When I looked up- I could not believe it.  George was setting on an old cement drain pipe- used in public drain systems. I was taken back 45 years, to a time as young teens we walked around our school yard playing on the swings, slides and old concrete tunnels. I walked towards him, he took my hand and said do you remember our after school walks? How could I forget, we enjoyed our daily after school walks- learning about each other's lives, spending time together in the sunshine, walking the playground- setting in the tunnels- our first kiss.

Godwink, that's what I will say happened in the car that day, that moment when God sends a wink from heaven- letting you know he has your back, he loves you and wants to remind you of his great love. All those memories I thought I was experiencing lead me to the church playground. I did not remember the countryside, churches, farms or fields, but those feelings of daja vu brought George and I to a place we could both recall.

We sat and reminisced about the past 45 years. How much in life had changed, the places we experienced, the roads we have traveled. I am thankful for this drive and the memories I could recall. Talking to George helped me see things clearly - we were so young when we met, two teenagers with a world of differences. He was from a divorced family, he was the oldest of three children, two younger sisters. I was the 11th child in my family of 12, my parents were married for over 30 years when we met. He was interested in fixing cars, and making money.  I was interested in reading, art and listening to music. Our friends were on two different playing fields.  His were hippies, or perhaps wannabe hippies, mechanics and greasers, mine were artists, musicians and silly girls who babysat, and dreamed about boys. Our variation in interests are perhaps what made us feel attracted to one another-the differences were intriguing to both of us. As we reminisced we decided to take a walk to see where this church yard lead. A short walk to the end of the side yard lead to a cemetery, a very well kept piece of land adjacent to the church yard, with w hedge row at the back of the land beyond that we could see a small village. We continued our journey as we walked we could not help but feel the familiarity of this small village with sweet little houses with picket fences, quant sidewalks, a library, and a sweet little restaurant. 

The cafe stood in the center of the row of businesses, familiar to us, we walked towards the restaurant, we quickly noticed the sign above the door, red and white with a Coca Cola label welcoming us in. We both looked at each other, this was something we experienced before, if you could hear our mind you would hear we were both thinking {could this be our cafe?} It looked the same to both of us, our first date was at a cafe in a small town; we were with my mother, helping with her home toy parties. After loading the boxes into the home for her to demonstrate her items, she gave us money to go get something to eat. She told to us be back in two hours to help her pack up. We quickly took the cash and walked to the small town of Brooklyn looking for a restaurant we could afford, to experience our first date. We were both excited as we walked into the cafe, looking off to the right in unison we found our booth, we both looked at each other-smiling and looking into each others eyes, we both said: it's not possible, is it? Our cafe' was in Brooklyn, Michigan. This was on the other side of the state, in Nashville, Michigan.  

We sat down to order, as we waited for the waitress our minds wondered to that day so long ago, our first magical date, the event that helped us realize our love was true and destined for a lifetime of laughter and joy. When our waitress arrived, we ordered a coke, two straws and an order of french fries, just like 1976.