I have a memory

Pin It Isn’t it odd just how often our memories can be triggered by a song, smell, or a taste of something from that time we’d left so many years before?

That’s so often how memories are for me.

I was walking through the halls of my elementary school a few years ago, and from somewhere I caught the scent of something I’d not smelled since my own elementary days. It was the smell of bamboo air freshener.

I was instantly transported back to Freeman Elementary School, in the first grade hallway walking to Mrs. Woodbury’s classroom. A moment later I’d returned to the present. However, the experience was so real, so vivid, and fantastic that for a moment I thought that I’d stepped through a conduit of time and space.

This also happens time to time when I hear a song, or eat something associated with a distant memory. It is this which brings me to my present post.

A dear friend and I were chatting not too long ago, and I mentioned these Hostess donuts my parents used to buy when I was a kid. I’m sure you’ve seen of them…they’re those nasty raspberry powdered kind.

As a kid I loved them.

My friend thought it would be fitting to bring me a box of these sugary delights. I opened the carton and a whiff of powdered sugar filled my senses as I reached in and lifted one from the container.

As I sank my teeth into this powdered delicacy, I was transported to the Columbia River…


The car was loaded with towels, an ice chest with lunch, and our swim gear.

Walking to the cold water over the scorching sand.


Catching minnows in a plastic cup.

Swimming to the floating dock.


Looking into the river depths and seeing shadowed reflections.

Floating on inner tubes and the smell of pine trees.


The asphalt parking lot strewn with pine needles.

Walking the logs and feeling brave, even though I never made it past the first one.

Campfires and the roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.

Riding in the canoe and smelling the sweet odor of the outdoors.


Warm summer breezes, and the sound of the pines rustling songs without words.


A moment later I was back in the present time, in my classroom. My students were at lab and would need to be picked up in a few minutes. I stood, as I did I looked into the box where now only two donuts gazed up at me.


Thanks, good friend, and thanks Hostess for a trip back to innocence.