A Flood of Tears............

There has been flooding in Georgia this week. Torrential rain fell over the weekend and on in to Monday. The first picture here is of kids being evacuated from Clarkdale Elementary School on Monday afternoon.......the second picture is the same school on Tuesday morning......

I don't know any of these children, but I know the school.

I spent 13 years living across the street from this small, neighborhood school. When I moved into the house I was a young mom with 3 children, ages 4, 2 1/2 and 1. When we left Georgia 13 years later, I was a much more seasoned and experienced mother of 6 children, and every one of them had attended this school.

Though it's been 9 years since we lived there, we still have many, many fond memories of Clarkdale. I would venture to say that at least one of my grown children still has their 5th grade, graduating class t-shirt from Clarkdale. It was a great school to grow up with. An anomaly in today's world of education, the school had only about 400 students from Kindergarten to 5th grade. The class sizes were kept small and they would work together on many projects to help and encourage one another. It was a family as well as a school. After all these years, they still have the same Principal and many of the same teachers.

News reports say the the school will most likely not re-open. The damage was too severe, and the fear of future flooding dictates that they re-build elsewhere.

This video shows the damage more extensively than the pictures. Around the 1 minute mark the camera pans past a yellow house. That's the house my family called home for so many years.

http://www.wsbtv.com/video/21068665/index.html

They say that home is where the heart is.....I found out this week that at least part of my heart is still in Georgia.

The 5 Senses of Memory........

I spent almost a week visiting family in Minnesota. While there I was bombarded on every side by memories. It was almost overwhelming. I was on memory overload. Here's what I came up with:

Minnesota Memories

What does a memory taste like?
Like Tom Thumb donuts,
and Swedish Rye Bread,
and cousin Wendy's chocolate chip cookies.

What does a memory sound like?
Like my brother's laugh,

and the call of the loon,
and the train whistle on an early summer morning,

What does a memory smell like?
Like cardamom seeds,
and lilac bushes,
and my dad's aftershave.

What does a memory look like?
Like old family photos,
and Bert, the Buffalo,
and a sailboat on the lake.

What does a memory feel like?
Like my dad's whiskers,
and a hug from my sister,
and the warm summer breeze.

How about you? What do your memories taste like? Smell like. Look like. Feel like. And sound like. Share a memory with me. And let me know you remember any of the same things I do.