Selective Memories

Posted on October 5, 2019 by Apparently Catherine

I couldn’t tell you what flowers I had on my wedding day, nor what food was at the reception or a single vow we made – I only know my father walked me down the isle because I had to ask my mother if he had or not once years ago after someone had asked and I suddenly had the painful realisation that I didn’t know. And while she confirmed that he had, all memories of that day are purely visual and confined to still images of photographs in my album, so I suppose I hold memories of the photos not the actual event, no sounds, no smells, no feelings, no movies in my mind.

I don’t remember much about growing up in general, try as I might I don’t remember my step siblings visiting in school holidays I couldn’t tell you how to get around my high school.

Yet for some unknown reason, I was gifted happy memories the other day stretching back to around 5yrs old and I could now take you on a detailed virtual tour of my childhood friend Jess’s house as it was in 1991. I can smell the Daphne bush in her front garden, you know, the one next to the shrub with the sour tasting pomegranates.

I could show you the wooden laughing Buddha statue that lived in the little entry way by the brown front door, to the right is the formal lounge room, we aren’t supposed to go in there but we like to sneak in anyway, the leather couch smells nice and there’s a great hiding place behind it next to the fancy looking hand painted ceramic table/vase looking thing, I have to be careful not to break it because it’s very special and I’m clumsy.

On the left side is the dining room with the cupboard that has the good board games, Hungry Hippos, Guess Who and my favourite, Mouse Trap! There’s a sliding door at the other end of the table leading to the galley kitchen with its yellow and white splash back tiles and the yellow 70s counter tops, there’s a window overlooking their next door neighbours backyard, two kids live there that we play with sometimes, they like cartoons like Batman.

There’s a big opening on the left side and you can see into the family room where the TV is and straight ahead is the freezer with icy poles then the wooden door with glass panels leading to the steps down into the backyard, go down there and you’ll be greeted by her Dalmatian dog, he’s very big and spotty like the dogs in the 101 Dalmatian book, he has a red collar and a huge wooden kennel that is fun to climb on and hide inside, their old hills hoist clothes line is great to hang off and spin around on but be careful you don’t land in dog poo if you fall off!

Back inside there’s a hallway off the family room, the study on the left is painted blue with a wicker chair, next to that is the laundry then the toilet and the bathroom down the end is Jess’s brothers room, he likes toy guns and models of army planes and there’s some hanging on his roof. On the right is Jess’s parents room, we are not allowed in there either, they are getting a new extension to have an en-suite- how fancy! My Mum wishes she had one like it.

The next room down is Jess’s room, she has a really pretty purple room now and it’s always really tidy, purple is Jess’s favourite colour in the whole world, she has a new white bunk bed but there’s no bottom bed, she has shelves instead to put her toys on, she has SO MANY wishing trolls, they all have different coloured hair and there’s even ones dressed like doctors and other cool things! She likes music, she has a keyboard and it has a demo mode which plays fun songs we can dance to.

Jess also has a really big basket filled up with dress ups, there’s even high heel shoes and long necklaces to make us look really fancy. I want to have a new wishing troll, I gave mine hair cuts and they don’t look very good anymore.