Memory Lane

I sometimes think back to the days when everything was so simple...a certain song or sight or smell makes me remember things I never remembered before and its as if I am transported back to that day...that hour...that minute.
At my grandpa's house in Oklahoma I would be running around barefoot under the weeping willow tree on hot and humid summer days...sucking the sweet nectar out of the honeysuckle flowers on warm crisp mornings...and dancing around in an old "haunted" living room with the people who shaped who I am today on breezy country nights. Some songs remind me of these days but mostly its the smells that take me back to Oklahoma. The smell of lake water and sun tan lotion, or honeysuckle and kool-aid, or the smell of an old house that's well loved.
"Tanya sit down!! What are you thinking!",my mom gasps.
"OK mom, hey Aunt Dodi when are we gonna be at the lake?"
"Real soon hon its just over these railroad tracks.", says my aunt from over her shoulder. Her thick brown hair in a tight french braid swings back down her back as she turns towards the road. I sigh and clench my whole body as I wait in anticipation.
My aunt puts her foot to the gas...this was the moment I had been waiting for, I knew this track, I knew this car, and I definitely knew my aunt. The car tires hit the track and the whole car was airborne, floating as if in the water, my body was lifted from the seat of the car my hair going up to touch the roof. I was weightless, flying, and then the car slammed back down to earth with a sickening scrape and a small nervous giggle from my aunt.
"Dodi!! You always do that, you know it cost money to fix the car when you do that!",my mom yells.
"Hehehe yeah but its so much fu..",stammers my aunt.
and then I yell out,"THAT WAS AWESOME AUNT DODI!!!"
And the whole car fills with laughter. Not very much longer after that we arrive at the lake. Now the lake, I must explain, isn't big or considered a hot spot but the lake does have something kids and grownups alike can enjoy. Out in the middle of the lake is a floating dock, the grownups usually swim out to it and sun on it while all the kids go under it. You see underneath is a totally secluded kid area, there are pockets of air and bars to grab onto, we swing from bar to bar playing tag and doing stunts to prove ourselves to one another. Usually when one of us gets tired we go onto the dock for a soda pop or just to warm up a bit, then its back into the dark depths of the kid sanctuary for more rowdy fun.
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The birds chirp and flit from one place to another, the humming birds humming around the bright orange flowers of the honeysuckle bush. My tiny, grubby kid fingers wrap around the base of a flower and pluck it right off. I turn it over and carefully pull the middle out, my mind on one thing, not wasting one drop of nectar from that flower. My heart soars as I bring the middle to my lips and enjoy the sweetness as well as the smell that is the Honeysuckle.
"Tanya! Its time, do you want me to do your hair or not?" my sister yells from the back door.
"YESSS!!", I yell back as I abandon my honeysuckle and scurry to the back door. As I get to it, it slams with a loud,"THWACK" and my grandma Grace can be heard, "You girls don't be slammin' my doors now!"
In unison my sister,Misty, and I say, "Yes grandma!"
"Well get over here you brat! I am not gonna be doing this all day! Here just stick your head right here and whatever you do don't move!" comes the bossy instructions from my sister. I do as she says not wanting to be the only one without the "classic" Kool-Aid hair dye Misty always gives me, my cousins, and my other sister, Chelsea. Every summer we go out to Oklahoma from California Misty has the unfortunate task of dying hair with old left over Kool-Aid my grandma Grace has in her pantry. As it starts out Misty is excited about it, but as the hours pass and the procession of heads seem to never end she gets bored. Me, well I am always last...I have the unfortunate luck of being neither oldest or youngest out of the group so I wait, and wait, and wait until finally its my turn.
"Why do you have to have such thick hair Tanya...I hate it!!", Misty mumbles to no one really because I am immersed in the smell and sight of the Kool-Aid as it drips from my hair into the bucket...its bright red and in my blond hair its turning a deep and dark pink. Not what I ever want but what always happens. Maybe next year grandma Grace will have blueberry Kool-Aid left over.