Another time another place!

Every once in a while something will happen and I am instantly transported to another time and another place, it is as if I am living in a moment from years ago. I can never plan for such occurrences, and I can never know when it will happen, it just happens, there is something that triggers deep down inside, it is almost as if something snaps - I do not know if I can describe it any better than that. It certainly does not happen very often, but when it does it is just like I am standing in the moment of yesterday or yesteryear once again, it is quite odd but very interesting at the same time.

Tonight it happened as I stuck my hand in a bag of 1/2 stale mini marshmallows - you know the kind, a little bit hard because the bag has been left open but no so hard they hurt your teeth, and they are a little chewier than they are when they are fresh. Oddly, this is actually how I prefer my marshmallows. Strange I know, but i think it is time and space association, for tonight when I popped one of those marshmallows in my mouth I was instantly transported to another time and another place!

I was standing in my Grandma's kitchen in the little house on John Street. Grandma has been gone just over 8 years now, and it has been at least 20 since she lived in the house on John street - however tonight things sort of stood still and I was there. I closed my eyes and it smelled like her house, it sounded like her house - momentarily I WAS at her house standing in front of the sliding door cupboard in in the far corner of her kitchen.

Oh how I loved Grandma's kitchen - it was a huge room that easily covered 1/4 of the total floor space of her little house. It was grand central station, everything that happened at Grandma's house happened in the kitchen ( with the exception of watching Gene Keniski wrestling on Saturdays with Grandpa- that happened in the living room!) I mean everything all the visiting happened around the big kitchen table, card games, skinned knees were patched, boyfriends discussed, tears dried, photos were taken, hair was styled, meals were eaten, sleep overs with my cousins always happened in the kitchen. I learned how to cook in Grandma's kitchen. Everyone was always welcome in Grandma's kitchen.

And tonight for just a moment in time I was there standing in front of the cupboard sliding it open, feeling it get stuck at the same spot it always got stuck, reaching over the nut chopper and the vanilla which were always in the same spot, and pulling out the bag of marshmallows - at Grandma's house the bag always seemed to be only 1/4 full and they were ALWAYS 1/2 stale, a little hard but not too hard. They were always perfectly stale. I am not quite sure how that always seemed to be the case but no matter how often we were there it was like that. 1/2 stale and mostly gone - it makes me wonder if when Gram bought a bag she dumped out a bunch and left the bag open on purpose because she knew I loved them that way. You know it would not surprise me in the least if that is exactly what she did - It would have been a Grandma sort of thing to do.

The mind truly is a powerful tool - for IN a split second and FOR a split second in time tonight I actually felt like I was right there in the middle of the kitchen. I do not know if it was the smell, or the feel of the marshmallows tonight that triggered the memories or if it will happen the next time I stick my hand in a bag of marshmallows - who knows and for the most part who cares - for tonight for a brief moment in time my mind allowed me the rare treasure of living in a moment from another time and another place. A blessing in deed!