Present Tense Memory

Dad and I made it to Springerville today.  It's beautiful here, in a breathtakingly rugged way.  The last time I was here, I remember feeling like the whole community bordered on the depressing, and was ready to leave.  For some reason, this time I feel like I love it all the way down to my bones.  It's cold here today, and it's been raining of and on all day.  And yet, the mountains...the clear sky...it's all so beautiful.

I don't know why I never saw it before.

The business we have been here to attend to has gone smoothly thus far.  Uncle Don's house is a treasure chest of unimaginable family history discoveries.  He was a collector, and didn't throw many things away, but even in the few hours dad and I were there today I was able to uncover so many priceless artifacts.  Amongst these are dozens of previously unseen (by me) photos of family from decades past, including the clearest pictures I have ever seen of my dad's parents when they were young.  In fact, I had only seen one photo of my grandpa prior to today - a medium distance shot where his face was mostly obscured by shadow thrown from a large hat.  Today, I found a full-face studio portrait of him taken sometime during his twenties.  It's small, but it's clear as a bell.  There's the man - full face, straight on, clear as day.  It's breathtaking.  It would mean so little to anyone else, but it means everything to me.

Adventure continues - discovery yet to come fills my heart with anticipation.  Being here in the cradle of my lineage is staggering.  Across the street from our motel is the school my dad went to 7th grade in.  That would have been over 60 years ago.  A child called Bobby ran into that building every day with (most likely) a twinkle in his eye and an ornery grin on his face.  This whole little town is FILLED with those stories, from family members I met, and some that only exist to me through stories - and now some precious pictures.

It's an interesting phenomenon how age bestows upon us a certain amount of myth.  The things we do today without a second thought could carry tremendous amounts of weight and import with following generations.  My dad grew up here.  He just did what we all do.  But something about that fact is AMAZING to me now.  There's a house behind Uncle Don's house that dad grew up in as a kid.  He had to live somewhere, you know?  But the fact that he lived there is AMAZING to me.  I will bring Joanna back here and show her that house and say, "HE LIVED HERE!  AND GRANDMA DID, TOO!!!  AND THEY WERE ALL SO YOUNG!!!!!"  Well, it's a house, and he lived in it.  But he also ATE CEREAL and DREW PICTURES and SANG SONGS there.  Don't you see?!?

It's an amazing thing.  It makes me want to take my current days more seriously, as you never know who will come back to the area where I live in 60 years, and say, "Mark lived HERE, and he ATE food here, and he had SUCH A COOL TV!"  And they'll look at me and say, "You really did?"  And I'll say, "Well, yeah, and I even listened to music on huge speakers."

"Wow..."