Memory Lane

Sometimes we remember the strangest things.  Sometimes we forget the outstanding.  Sometimes it all just blurs together.  And sometimes events, experiences, writings can prod you to remember things you hadn't thought of in ages.

Why am I bringing this up?  Because last night when I was reading a blog, one of those memories was dredged up.  I'm not sure why, or how, or what triggered it, but for the first time in ages I remembered a book from my childhood.  No, it wasn't one I owned.  It wasn't one from the library, from school, or one that a friend or relative had.  No, it was a book in the waiting room at the dentist's office.

Alas, I remembered only the general gist, and the art style.  Title and author eluded my recollection. Thus began nearly an hour of searching, until finally I found it.  The Summerfolk by Doris Burn is an extensively-illustrated children's book published in 1968.  It was over a decade later that I must have first encountered it.  It's the tale of a fisherman's son in coastal area, and an adventure in the swamps nearby along with the children of "the summerfolk," the summer-time vacationers.  That's all I can remember.  I may order a used copy via Amazon.

Anyhow, I have no idea what it was about the blog post that triggered my memories of the book.  But trigger it they did, and suddenly I was having vivid recollections of reading it on the colorful stools in the waiting room, or when I was a bit older on the sectional couch.  The smell, the sights, the sounds of sitting there, reading that book, just washed over me.  Memory is a stranger thing.