Every year as a child, my family would do something outdoorsy over the “holiday” weekend. We would go to the lake with my extended family or we would have a cook-out. We would run around from sun up until sun down and it was the only time I didn’t want to waste one minute staying in the yucky ole’ house. Kids who stayed in the house must have had the flu, chicken pox, or did something really bad and were on “restriction”.
I would throw on my OP shorts and my tank top, and jump on my bike to ride around. Then that would get boring after like 5 minutes, so we’d run to the woods. That never got boring, so we’d stay in there all day. I’d come back covered in bug bites, dirt, and have burrs in my really long hair. That was actually not as fun, but the rest of it was. So after sitting at the table looking like some horror movie gone wrong with my hair 5 feet in the air and frizzed out because my mom was picking the burrs out, we’d vow to stay out of the field next time and go around to the little pond we explored.
I was always pretty vague about where I’d been that day…mostly because we went really deep into the woods exploring. I realized that times are really different now, and I wish we didn’t “know” so much. Technology tends to make us less connected and I am a fine one to talk, yes I know this.
So yesterday something near miraculous happened. We didn’t check into tech at all during a cook-out we had. That’s right. Only to take a photo, but then we put it up again. That goes for everyone there. It was nice. Very nice. I think the phones need to go in “time-out” from now on when people gather. I know how tempted we all are to grab them, but for some of us, we can remember a time from our youth spent really talking to people. Engaging in each others company. Making memories. After all, Memorial Day is about remembering and honoring all those who died while in military service and I know they would want us to carry on making memories.
