favorite things

It's interesting how different things can trigger memories. Yesterday the small children and I shared a cantaloupe (yes, between us we ate the entire thing) that was really good. I couldn't cut the thing fast enough to keep up with the speed at which they were shoveling the fruit into their mouths. But this cantaloupe was very good - it tasted just like the ones we used to eat at Grandma Jackie's house during the Fourth of July in Iowa (where it's not a little sketchy to buy produce from the farmers selling on the side of the road out of their pickup trucks). I so want to take my kids to small town Iowa for the small town Fourth of July celebrations, which aren't that much to speak of, but they also aren't put on for the show. It's not like I have memories of days that were without their share of drama. I remember it was always either ridiculously hot or raining, and I have no doubt that we were usually a chore to entertain. But I also remember how much fun it was to watch the fireworks, play bingo, watch the parade, and how good the cantaloupe and the watermelon tasted, and how the adults in my family didn't try and entertain us at every moment with this plan or that but let us figure things out for ourselves.

I haven't been to Yale, Iowa, for the Fourth of July celebration in a really long time. I'm sure things have changed, and I'm sure there are plenty of not-delightful things I would notice about small towns and their residents were I to return. But that doesn't change my desire to go back.

The other thing that has stirred memories lately has been a return to using matches. I think I really prefer matches over a firestick. Yes, a firestick may be easier, but there's nothing remarkable about it. Matches have an instantaneous, unmistakable smell associated with lighting them that just reminds me of afternoons after school, going downstairs to do my homework and lighting either a candle or incense from India. Even accounting for the homework, it's a pleasant memory.