Memory Lane . . .

City Mouse Now Country Mouse
No. 8

I have visited Memory Lane--both figuratively and literally--over the past couple of days. This is the easier of the two stories so I'll start there.

Aaron and I drove to Chambersburg, PA, today to buy a baker's rack for our kitchen. As I have mentioned to some, we are now living in a 950 sq. ft. house; by contrast, our home in Dallas was nearly 3,400 sq. ft. So, the move has meant that a real downsize in living space. At any rate, the key to living in a small space is organization. "A place for everything and everything in its place" as the old adage goes. So we agreed that we needed what I call "a holding thing" to manage some of our stuff (dog leashes, mail, cell phones, keys, etc.). I looked on Craig's list to see if I could find something that would work and I found the holding thing I was looking for at the top of the list. And it was only $35! (Cheap, Cheap, Emily!) Aaron made the arrangements and he gave me the address to plug into the map app on the iPhone. I laughed out loud when he told me we were headed to Memory Lane, and it prompted me to remember our weekend, which leads me to our second story.

On Saturday, we attended the memorial service for Joanne Ezzard Barksdale. The Barksdales were long time family friends of our and I must have been 8 years old when we first met. My father had gone to Cornell with Tom Barksdale--Daddy studied floriculture and Tom studied tomatoes--and then both earned their doctorates there in 1955. Interestingly enough, Daddy and Tom both found their way to the Agriculture Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland doing research in their specialties. Their friendship led to our families getting to know each other.

His wife, Joanne, was the Chair of Home Economics at Hood College in Frederick Maryland. As a result of her field of study, Joanne knew everything there was to know about managing a home and cooking. She taught me how to make jam and how to seal the jars using a boiling water bath, the proper temperature for cooking and storing meats, and how to get the stain out of anything. Tom and Joanne had two girls, Kathy and Ruth, and I remember having great fun with them whenever I was asked to babysit for them. Joanne was diagnosed with MS in 1975 and had to retire from Hood. She attacked MS with the same methodical approach she had in her professional life and learned that food was an important trigger in the progression of MS. She battled the disease for 37 years and died on July 12, 2012.

The funeral was peppered with stories of Joanne and her pecadilloes. Joanne was a tall southern woman, a straight-shooter and a planner. She was opinionated--since she knew she was right--and she had a heart of gold. My brother Henry was one of the speakers and he rolled out the stories from years gone by in a way that had many laughing and crying at the same time. Paul, Henry's best friend from childhood, had married Ruth, the younger of the two Barksdale girls, and he also told some head-shakin' stories. Joanne was a rabid sports fan and she particularly loved the Orioles. As I sat there in the church, I looked at Henry and Paul,  and thought about the days long gone, and suddenly I was 17 again and driving them around to one thing or another. Those days were simple. Our biggest concern was homework and the big games at Paint Branch. Now, as grown-ups, our days are much more complicated. We all have children of our own, jobs, and mortgages; we left the carefree days of high school behind. It was great to see everyone--even under the circumstances--and to take that trip down Memory Lane. As with everything, memories are a mixture of many emotions. For me, it was both the sadness of loss and the sweetness of reconnecting with loved ones from another part of my life.

P. S. RWRD Update: Thanks to our regular need for clean clothes, I am now running a 11:30 mile which is down from a 13:30 mile. I'll keep you posted on my progress.