Today I had a lot of memories come up and thought I would share how sometimes one memory leads to a chain of memories.

Earlier this week a family friend passed away that brought back a lot of memories.

See: Family Friends IX – Raymond Lyon

In the post I mentioned that my Dad used to help Raymond build rock walls. I talked to my Mom, and she had talked to one of his grandsons at the memorial service and mentioned a picture taken in front of one of the walls. I told my Mom that I would search through my archives and find the picture.

I actually found two pictures that had the wall in the background. The pictures were taken in 1965 shortly after my sister was born. My grandparents were visiting and my Dad wanted to show my Grandpa the work that he had done.

The wall was at the new fire station on Wapello Street.

The first picture shows my parents, my Grandpa holding my sister, and my Dad’s sister.

In the second picture my Grandma replaced my Mom who then took the picture.

I also looked on Google Maps to see if the wall was still standing. The wall that the picture was taken in front of has been replaced with a newer wall, but there is another wall close to the street that looks like it may be from the same time period. I will have to ask my Dad if this wall is also from the same time period. It does look similar in construction style as the original wall.

Today was the wedding of the daughter of some good friends of mine who live in Toronto. Since I was looking at the picture of my parents with my baby sister and thinking of the wedding I also thought of this picture of my parents at their wedding.

Which then made me think of this picture I used in my post last night about National Book Lovers Day. This memory chain is not too obvious, although a very few people may have been able to figure it out.

My parents went to Niagra Falls on their honeymoon, and the wedding of my friend’s daughter was very near to Niagra Falls. The glass in the door in this picture is etched with a picture of Niagra Falls. Of course, this is not visible in the picture but I know that it was. This was one of the things that I really liked about the house we lived in for so many years in Ottumwa.

Lots of memories, and this was not the end of this chain.

Many more memories have flooded back today. I also went to a celebration of life for a member of our congregation today and even though I only knew her for the last part of her life, many of the pictures shown during a presentation sparked memories of my own family and friends during the same time periods.

A day of memories.

Steven