Early up and the day is started. After my cup of coffee, it is time to catch up on email. I have friends in far flung places. God bless email. It keeps us together and up to date on events in our lives.

Today, I get an email from an ecard website. I love this website. The cards there are well drawn, animated with music to set the mood. There are three animated Christmas ecards...all good. The cards are previewed. I arrange for them to be delivered just before Christmas. The ecards are in addition to the paper cards I've all ready sent out.

The old fashioned ecard gets me remembering my childhood. This mental link is called association. In the ecard, some of the gifts under the Christmas tree are similar to those I had as a child....or wanted to get but never got.

In memory, I am a child again, wandering around the old neighborhood. There are two neighborhoods....one for winter and one for summer, as my father had a little cottage out at the lake. It was there I learned to swim. I think I spent the entire summer in my bathing suit and loved it. Those are happy memories. I hear my mother say about such memories: "Memories that bless and burn". Yes. They sure do. Today, they are blessing.

Then, I remember that I was free to wander in and out of other people's houses. People did not lock doors then. I was curious and friendly. I said hello to my neighbors. Some of them were the parents of my playmates, but others were not. I remember going into a cottage that had a little sun porch. By little, I mean really little. It was just big enough for a daybed...which was on the long wall. Hanging in the window, was a spider plant with little spider plants growing out of the pot. It was like a green waterfall. The lady told me the name of the plant. I was delighted to see the plant sway in the breeze that was coming through the open window. Also in memory, my lungs filled with fresh air and the sound of the waves on the beach. You can't beat that experience.

A winter memory : back in the city. Next door lived Mama Young. She was an overweight woman . Her children were grown. Their names were Bob and Marie. I remember that Mama Young had a substantial rocking chair that she positioned facing the street. From her station on the rocking chair, she could watch the street. She would watch and rock. I came to visit. She gave me a dust cloth and asked me to dust the furniture...which I did. That was not remarkable for the times. In her dining room, was a matched set of furniture. There was a sideboard or credenza...placed in the same place that every home in the neighborhood placed their credenza: on the short wall . She had a display of fruit in a bowl on the sideboard that looked delicious. When no one was looking, I picked up a piece of fruit and bit it. It was wax. Oh Oh....I put the fruit back in the bowl...teeth marks down.

Mama Young's son, Bob came home from the war (world war 2). All the neighborhood kids were so excited to have a real hero come home. What could We do to show our welcome? What materials do children have for the task? Chalk. There must have been five of us who took chalk and drew all over the sidewalk and the street to welcome Bob home. I think We also drew on the cement step to the front door. I don't remember what the reaction was to our...probably messy....welcome home .

One sad day, Mama Young died. There was a reception in the house for her. Relatives and neighbors came in to pay their respect. The neighborhood children wanted to show respect, too. We went into the empty lot next door to my house and picked wildflowers. They were put in a glass with water. Solemnly, they were presented to Bob and Marie. Our flowers were placed with the other expensive and store bought flowers...in a place of honor.