When a memory returns....

While "pinning" recently on Pinterest, I came across this photo of a wind chime.  Suddenly, I found myself traveling back to when I was about 8 years old and we were taking my brother to his first sleep away camp experience as a Boy Scout.  While on our journey upstate we had parked at a roadside stop to have lunch.  There must have been a shop there, because I remember that after we went inside we came away with a beautiful glass wind chime, similar to the one above.  In my mind's eye I can see it suspended from a tree branch as we all sat at a picnic table to eat our packed lunch.  My father must have hung it up for us to enjoy during our break.  The pieces of glass were painted with such beautiful colors and I was fascinated by the gentle tinkling sound it made as the breeze would stir it.  

My father looped the chimes around a branch on the dogwood tree in the back yard when we returned home. Sadly, the chimes did not last but a few weeks, being made of glass and held together by such fine threads.   But two things stayed with me - first, the beauty and echo of the chimes and secondly, the surprise that my parents bought it for me simply because I had admired it so much.  Maybe they thought it would help me with missing my brother while he was gone.

Funny, isn't it, the things you remember....