Pleasant Dreams

Yes, it is 4:10am and as I lay in that land of barely asleep, Andy came down for the 31st time and although he was attempting to be quiet.  I am awake.  I was in the midst of the most lovely dream.  I am more angry about leaving my dream than being awake at 4am.  In my dream, I was with so many people that I have loved and lost.  Some are still alive and yet we have lost the people that brought us together....namely our parents and grandparents.  My cousins are wonderful people and I do miss them.  In this day where very few live people in the same little towns as their parents before them, we are scattered throughout the country  Somehow, when a phone call or even a Facebook chat brings us together for a few moments, we always share those memories of Nana and Pop and the wonder and joy of being children in a close family.

We reminisce of warm days at the cottage, as our parents played pinochle and drank beer.  We were running freely in and out, jumping in the lake with a bar of soap to bathe, since there was no bathtub.  We were playing Chinese Checkers on the screened porch, when the lake was too rough to swim.  The only game in the cottage was stored behind the couch and I still have it in my closet.  I need to pull it out and play it with a grandchild soon.  Someone has to tell the story of my father and Uncle Bill almost getting into a fist fight after too many beers, but Nana was handy with a mop to break it up.

The cottage never seemed small.  The Detroit house on Northlawn seemed to grow as did our family.  I realize, looking at the photos, that we were packed in like sardines.

There are still old photos with little girls,  all in dresses and MaryJane shoes.  Summer's bathing suits gave way to holiday gatherings when all our mother's brought pies and favorite dishes to Nana's house and children gathered upstairs in bedrooms, according to age.  You always knew the cousins closest to your age the best. Only the youngest grandchildren missed out on this life that was truly reminiscent of a "Waltons" episode and I wish they had these memories.  They are something to build on.

Many of us are in our 60's now, which is older than our grandparents were when the memories were made.  When you are a child, age is kind of simple.  You are a kid, you are a parent or you are a grandparent.  That is "old".  It wasn't too old to laugh with us, tease us and love us.  It was old enough to teach us and so many of us are still making the old recipes.  Just the other day, my cousin's daughter posted something on Facebook about making Christmas cookies.  She was using Nana's (her great-grandmother) recipes.  Technology enabled me to ask for a copy of one of these precious memories and I will make them and remember.  I keep a photo of Nana teaching my own children to bake Christmas cookies in my kitchen.

In my dream, I was hosting a party with grandchilden and everyone was there.  We were near a lake, in a cottage that was unknown to me.  As I walked through the crowd of cousins, Aunts and Uncles, I was teaching my grandchildren to always speak to everyone.  There was so much laughter and love as I moved through the crowded rooms and soon I was in a screened pavilion out by the lake, filled with relatives.  Suddenly we were talking about what a good job Uncle Frank had done in building it.  I have to smile because it is something he might have done in is life, if he owned lake property.

Why do we have dreams like this?  Maybe I just needed some time with all of those wonderful relatives of mine.  Every so often they seem to stop by and I wake up knowing how important those memories are.  It was good to see them all tonight.