I have, in the past, spoken about my reluctance to go traipsing down memory lane, and for a variety of reasons. First of all, my traipses allude to my age. I don’t want people to know how old I am because they then tend to stereotype me. And secondly, traipsing lends itself to getting trapped in the quicksand of past memories, a place where those who are older, reside. I have tended to scooch around this sort of thing, by focusing on the present. As an aside, it is amazing how past memories return with such clarity. Recent memories, less so. What gives?

But today I did some major traipsing with my dear friend Becky. She’s around my age, and so no judgement, on either side, was passed.

The catalyst was the Bright Lights Book Project, and specifically, the kids books that we elected to (together) sort, categorize, and clean. The books elicited past memories, and so we let the conversation go from there.

We both decided that neither of us had an affinity for Looney Tunes, the Pink Panther, or the Three Stooges. And neither one of us liked Curious George or the Bernstein Bears. Furthermore, neither one of us had an affinity for the book, Little Women.

We both liked the SRA reading system, although Becky noted that the box of stories were in the front of the room, and she dreaded having to go up and pick out her next read. I said that my problem was that the individual reads got more technical and less interesting as I moved upwards in the reading levels.

Favorite books surfaced and were then taken in hand happily. Becky came across a copy of a Golden Book on the subject of kindergarten and immediately started beaming. It was a book, she said, she remembered reading in kindergarten. She then looked up the publication date – it was 1966, the year that she first got a hold of the book.

Me, I found a book entitled “The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night” (it’s based on a song), and I immediately noted that it brought back memories of me singing it with my father. “Yep,” I said, “this book is a keeper,” and so I immediately put it in my backpack and brought it home.

Rock bands – neither of us particularly enjoyed loud boy band music while growing up, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Kiss, AC/DC, included. That one was a no brainer.

Sunday comics, we both liked Garfield and some of Far Side Cartoons.

Movies and television shows, we didn’t get that far because by then the sun was low in the sky and neither of us were up for driving home at night.

If I’d traipsed with someone younger, I would have been met with a blank expression. If I’d traipsed with someone older, I would have had the blank expression. It works both ways.

Odd, how several boxes of kids’ books brought this on.

Next: 320. 11/19/21: Chilly Scenes of Winter