a memory unleashes itself

when i was young i heard my parents talk about how little they remember their childhood. they would tell the same 2-3 stories and struggled to conjure up anything else about what they did every day during those young ages. i told myself i would remember everything. i would remember the bullies, my friends, what i did on april 17th, 2003, i mean, how could i forget? 

well, i did, like we all do. but we don't really... the memories are just stored elsewhere, in the "back" of our brains. and it is such a delight for one of those memories to crawl its way to the front and say hello. this happened to me today.

my friend was talking about ikea, and how when he used to visit when he was little, his parents never let him go into the little kids playpen, where a supervisor would watch the kids while the parents shopped.

this sparked something inside me... wait, i have been a kid, and i have been in a children's playpen... but not at ikea. from the ages of around 4-9, whenever my parents shopped at this one supermarket, big y, they placed me into the section called "little y", a place for all the little kids to hang out. it's crazy that such a core part of my childhood, seemingly once a week for five years, could slip out of my memory, and then suddenly come flooding back.

i recalled the exact pattern of the play mats inside the space (multi-colored puzzle), the window overlooking the beautiful parking lot, the crayons resting in a plastic box on the table, and most importantly to me: the computers. 

i remember for the first couple minutes after my parents dropped me off, i would charm them by playing with the crayons and drawing, just in case they were watching still. and then when i thought the coast was clear, i would run to the computer and spend the next 40 minutes there. 

after reminiscing to my friend who probably didn't care too much about all these details, although he kindly smiled, i googled the little y club. oddly enough, a woman in 2004 made a blog post about how much she loved the little y in our town, and posted pictures of it. 

my memory didn't lie to me, because there i saw the multi colored puzzle play mats, the window overlooking the not as beautiful as i remembered parking lot, the crayons in the box, and a photo of me, playing on the computer.

just kidding it was another kid but you never know.