Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Evoking memories

I was just munching on a frozen lamington (the ONLY way to eat them!) and it really brought back memories of when I was a child. I then started thinking of other things that always evoke those sorts of memories and came up with this list.

*Frozen Lamingtons.
For those foreigners who read this and don't know, a lamington is a sponge cake covered in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut. They used to be big fundraisers back when I was in promary school (before Cadbury cornered the market with their cocaine laced Freddos ;-) lol) and since there were three of us, Mum would usually put in an order with each class. So the end result was quite a few boxes of lamingtons all arriving at the same time. So they wouldn't go stale we would freeze them and now it's just habit to do that. What makes it even more special is if they're raspberry ones!

*Playing darts.
My Mum was a champion darts player and so from the time we were tall enough to throw a dart without missing the board, we were playing. It used to be a family affair too - uncles and aunties and cousins would all converge on our place and we'd play in teams. Many a New Years Eve was spent playing darts and ringing in the New Year with a game of Burma Road.

* John Forest National Park and Fred Jacoby Park.
Dad took us out to many, many places when we were little but these two really stick in my mind. Whenever we go there now for a bbq or just a wander about it always brings back memories of Dad and all the fun we had there. My sisters have always enjoyed taking their kids there too since we all want them to have the same happy memories of those places as we do.

*Coke and salt and vinegar chips.
When we lived in Roebourne the hub of the social scene was The Club, basically the pub with a family area so kids were allowed. It was at the front of a large oval and it had an old concrete skating rink and an even older steam train for us kids to play on. Mum and Dad would head down to the club, Dad for a quiet drink, Mum for the darts and us kids would get a baby can of Coke and a bag of Samboy S&V chips and we'd run off and play with the other prison officer brats. Whenever I have that combination it always brings back memories of the Roebourne Club.

*Indoor potted palms. I spent a substantial amount of my childhood in the Roebourne hospital, usually bed ridden and awfully sick. But when I'd start to get better I would get very ansty at being kept in bed and would want to go and play. Hospitals however are not generally equipped with great play areas and so when they would allow me out of bed I would head down to a small waiting room area between the X Ray room and the ward where there was a small atrium full of potted plams. It wasn't a playground but it gave me a quiet, out of the way area in which I could stretch my legs and be free of my bed for a little while.

*Corned beef and AFL.
I don't know why but it always seemed that Mum would cook a corned beef on a Saturday at exactly the same time as Dad was watching the footy. I just always remember the feel of the house when those two things combined, the smell of the beef cooking and the sounds of the tv mixed with the busy but relaxed feel of the place on a Saturday when no one was rushing off to work but we were all home at once. The weird thing is, it was never a very comfortable feel. I don't know why, maybe it's because I don't like AFL but it always made me feel slightly on edge.

There are many many more but I just can't think of them at the moment. What about you? Is there any particular object or scent or song that reminds you of your childhood? I'd love to know.

5 comments:

Smerk said...

Hmm...the only thing I can think of is the greasy/metallic smell - kinda like a mechanics workshop - which is pretty much how my dad smelt when he came home from work (and before he had a shower).

And I've never had a frozen lamington...I don't think I've had a lamington in years, either.

Helen said...

Smells are the biggest memory provokers for me. The smell of cooking gas reminds me of the UK (central heating). Many others I can never quite put my finger on.

I most often get a feeling from a scent, rather than an actual memory. A feeling of childhood, or a place, or a person, or just a feeling.. a mood... an emotion, that I can't explain. I wonder if that makes sense to anyone else.

Nettie said...

Yup, it makes total sense to me!

Shawna said...

One thing for me is on the rare occasions when there's a slightly warmer than normal rain in the afternoon, with the sun shining through (VERY rare around here), it reminds me of when I was living in Hawaii as a kid (Mom was stationed there for three years, from when I was 4 to 7, roughly).

Also, the more I think about things (like a previous house), the more things come rushing back. Right now, just writing about this, I'm getting images in my head of a babysitter's house (she was a big Elvis fan, lived in a trailer, had a stuffed pig that I loved playing with, and one day I decided I would make cabbage soup by putting a couple of cabbage leaves, salt, and pepper in a bowl of water!), my aunt's house in North Carolina (also a trailer, porch swing, chest freezer, my brother and I playing with Silly Putty there one year, climbing through the fence to go pick blackberries)--so many great things.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to those times and live them again. They were good times. :-)

Acci said...

I haven't been around much of anything that reminds me greatly of childhood, which is probably for the best. Occasionally a certain quality of smell of rocks and stone will bring back some memories. Oh, and goats sometimes remind me of hunting or eating goats. And those little round metal utility covers that you'll see sometimes on sidewalks or in lawns remind me of playing with antitank mines (NOTE TO KIDS: NOT RECOMMENDED!). But too much has changed in my life situation for there to be many reminders.