Memoreees (imagine off-key singing)

[shakatany]

For Proust it was madeleines that sent him into a journey through his memories; for me it was a bathing suit. On the cover of this week's New York magazine is a photo of Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson wearing a 50's bathing suit with cherries on it very similar to one my mother had. Until I saw that photo I had forgotten that suit but the memories of it are still there in the compost heap that is part of my brain. That and the hot weather triggered a string of memories of the times she wore it at Brighton Beach and the days we spent there when I was young. I can still recall the taste of the fudge candies I would buy in the subway station for the trip there and occasionally I'll dream of when the tide would come in and we'd have to drag our belongings further inland. I'm particularly susceptible to such prompts now as July 5th is the anniversary of her death when I was 15. It's strange that memories from our youth stick with us the best - I can barely recall what I did last week.