Day 53: Come on kid. Start building some memories.-- Tramp, Lady and The Tramp

Come on kid. Start building some memories.-- Tramp

Just after Tramp and Lady finish their "Bella Notte" date, Tramp suggests they chase chickens on the way home. Being a house dog, Lady of course is hesitant and Tramp, an outside dog, encourages her to live a little with this quote.

Building memories happens every time you do something. Even if it's something as mundane or simple as making a meal at home or driving down the road, you're making a memory of a moment in time you were doing something. Sometimes memories stick out and become so ingrained they become a part of your personality and who you truly are. The Emotions of Inside Out call them "Core Memories". It could be something like your parents taking you to church or the first time you learned to read or master a new skill. Every day we're making memories. Sometimes we go through something that is extremely bad, sad or traumatic. Even though we try to block them, they are still a part of our memories.
Personally, I prefer to think about all the happier memories over the sad ones.  For example, it's been 10 years since my grandmother passed away from dementia. I do not like to think about the sad ending to her life (all she could say was "I go home" and in our last phone call she repeated "I love you" when mom prompted her to say it because her brain was that far gone). I much prefer to remember all the good memories I got to have with her, like spending Christmases with her (which meant Santa visited twice some years!) and seeing it snow on Christmas in TN where she lived or getting to drink some of her Mello Yello because that was her favorite soda. Mom wouldn't let us drink soda as kids, except for a glass at her mom's (my grandmother's), when we earned a trip to the soda machine in school, or when we went to the lake with friends as a rare treat.  Course as kids (especially as teens), we would do what we could to get more soda, drink at our friends or use our milk money. I'm pretty sure there wasn't nothing we didn't try just for that rare treat. Though once we were teens, we were allowed more soda since we were older, but Mom still wanted it to be a rare treat, which didn't always happen. I'd love for my future children to see soda as a rare treat like I did growing up, but it will be harder since soda is more readily avalible now that I'm older and it's more cheaper than bottled juice in some places. 
My grandfather (her first husband and my mom's daddy) passed away from the same thing and about 3 months prior to my grandmother. My favorite memories of him aren't of Christmas, but of Harvest time. He had the hugest garden you've ever seen. He had every last vegetable and so many fruits in that garden. Every year we'd go in August just before school started and we'd help him harvest his garden. Then we'd help snap the beans and peas while the rest of my family told stories of days gone by. I don't remember many of the stories but I loved to snap! My most favorite Harvest memory was when he taught me how to make his coleslaw, starting with picking all the veggies from the garden then slicing them on the long picnic table he had in his yard to handmaking the slaw sauce. We did this for years and I think of him every time I make slaw. Once you've tasted fresh from the garden coleslaw you never go back to bagged slaw.  Before we'd leave to go back, he'd load our car up with all the canned veggies he and his second wife made, but best of all was his homemade apple butter made from the apple tree in his backyard. He'd give us 6 huge mason jars full and they'd be gone before the next year. I have yet to find anyone that can make it identical to him.  My aunts and cousins try but it's just not the same!
Though my memories may seem like they're just every-day things that happen out in the world (which they are), they are still memories I will never forget and cherish because of all the new skills I learned and how everyone made me feel. Some of my other memories are along the more "fantastical", like the first time we went to Walt Disney World, which was Christmas 1997. The two biggest things I remember was me getting to take a day-long animation course at The Disney Institute, our campsite at the KOA we were staying at getting flooded and having to move to higher ground, and Cinderella's Castle being Pepto Bismol pink(a horror I hope Disney NEVER repeats again!).  But that is for another post and another day. 
So keep making memories and Keep Cooking with Character!