"Slip sliding away."

"Slip Sliding Away" by Paul Simon is one of those songs that gets me, stirs emotions, brings back memories.  Easy-listening 70's music does that to me. 

If my mom had a playlist for the hours we spent together, riding in the car from one place to another, that song would be on it, along with Karen Carpenter, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Anne Murray, ABBA, you get it.  Pretty classic.  Pretty awesome.

I can still remember, as a kid, riding in the front seat, my window down, eyes closed, arms crossed on the window-edge, my head buried in my arms, while the wind whipped my hair all around and the warm sun blared on my skin . . . and the music played.  Good times.  Really good times.

Music is different today.  It's great and all.  But the old stuff . . . 

My kids' memories will be different from mine, but I hope the feelings are still the same.  Safe, happy, warm.  I want their remembering to be a comfort.  Like the feeling you get when you're holding something familiar and chock-full of memories, like a blankie or stuffed animal you had as a kid.

The line from An Affair to Remember keeps playing in my head, "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories..."  It's TRUE!  Memories are precious, like good old friends.

The time I spend with my kids are the makings of sweet memories that I hope will build and build on each other so the remembering will be easy and plentiful, and--if I'm lucky--overshadow the not-so-pleasant memories that are a part of life, too.  Like the time my mom dragged me to my room by my hair...I can't seem to forget that little nugget :).  I've said it before and I'll say it again--I TOTALLY deserved it.