In a conversation with J yesterday, who has sold her house and is moving into a two bedroom unit in a co-op, we discussed the relationship of things to memories. As she down-sizes her mantra is "it's just stuff." Retaining the stuff is not necessary to retain the memory. While Joanne and I were doing that a few years ago friends told us that as they downsized they would ask "What are the memories connected to this object?" Then they would wonder "Do we need to keep this thing to maintain the memory?" If the answer was "no" then they would dispose of the item.
In a totally different context I was recently reminded of a memory of riding a train in Japan. This brought to mind a specific memory. When our Marine unit was shipped from Okinawa to one of the larger Japanese Islands, in November 1961, for cold weather training, we were situated in a tent camp at the base of Mt. Fuji. Ed and I decided to visit my cousin, Oliver Bergh and his wife Judy, who were missionaries in Shimizu.
We boarded a train in Gotemba, the nearest train stop to our tent camp. It was not a mainline track and the train was powered by a steam locomotive, which filled the passenger cars with smoke going through the tunnels. It wasn't a long trip. When we arrived in Shizuoka, sister city to Shimizu, we departed the train at the central train station. Lacking directions to Oliver's house, and not speaking Japanese, we walked to a nearby taxi stand. We showed a taxi driver an envelope which had Oliver's return address. The driver quickly hailed other drivers who clustered around the first driver in animated conversation. In a few minutes the driver opened the door of his cab and motioned for us to enter as all the other drivers smiled and nodded...we were off. It was a bit of a ride but eventually we pulled up in front of Oliver's house where we spent the weekend.
The world really runs on trust. News is made when trust is broken. My 200? pictures of Mt. Fuji are still on slides or I'd attach a picture. 😄
Takk for alt,
Al
1 comment:
Hi I am having a difficult time reading your post because the picture on top of the words.
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