I've been having some obscure childhood memories flooding my mind the past few days.

[LuckyCharms]

I was on a bus with my parents when I was about 8 or 9 years old. We went to Manhattan. It was probably a Greyhound or ShortLine bus.

My father did not drink. The one and only time I saw him drink any alcohol at all was on that bus. He pulled a flat bottle of whiskey out of his jacket, and a shot glass.

My mother exhibited some scorn and asked "What are you doing"?

He said something like "I'm having a drink. I do physical labor 10 to 12 hours a day, and I have not had a drink in decades. We're having a little vacation now, so I'm going to have a drink". He had one or two shots.

There were two nuns sitting in our proximity who appeared to be rather taken by my dad. My dad was very handsome, and he was a charmer. I remember the nuns were smiling at him and making small talk.

As he went to put the bottle of whiskey back in his jacket, he addressed the nuns. Said something like "Where are my manners? I should have offered you lovely ladies some whiskey. Can I pour you a glass"? They smiled and politely declined. Then, there was a loud slapping sound because my mom slapped him on his arm, and said "STOP THAT"! I remember I was taken aback because I didn't know why she got so pissed off. He was acting like he always acted, and my mother was very laid back, but something about that interaction really pissed her off. If my mom could come back from the dead for a day, one of the first things I would ask her why she got so mad.

My parents were sitting together on the bus, the nuns were sitting across the aisle from them, and I got stuck one or two rows back from my parents. This really obnoxious kid was sitting right next to me. His mother or grandmother was sitting directly across the aisle from him. This kid kept kicking me in the legs and laughing, giving me an elbow to the ribs, etc. He was getting a big kick out of it. I was very shy when I was young, so I just said "quit it", but he kept doing it.

The kid suddenly became fascinated with a metal, flip-out ashtray that was mounted on the back of the seat in front of him. The ashtray had red writing on it, I can't remember what it said, but it had the word "cigarettes" in it. So for about a good 10 minutes, the kid is talking to himself and trying to pronounce the word "cigarettes".

Cig arettees

Ciga arest

Cigar a rest

Cijar ettes

Over and over and over, he was trying to figure out how to pronounce cigarettes.

I lost my shit and stated yelling at him.

IT'S PRONOUNCED CIGARETTES YOU STUPID JERK! CIGARETTES! AND IF YOU DON'T STOP KICKING ME I'M GOING TO SMASH YOUR STUPID FACE IN"!!!

We arrived in NYC, checked into a hotel, and went shopping. I think we might have been in Macy's? Big department store. It was wall to wall people inside. Somehow, my father produced a red helium-filled balloon and tied the end of the string to this hat I was wearing. Therefore, the balloon was floating about 10 feet above my head.

I asked my dad why he did that, and he explained that the crowd was really big, and if we got separated, he would just look for the balloon and he would come and get me.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, but now I'm wondering if my parents were scheming against me, and my dad only tied the balloon to my head in order to avoid me as my parents escaped from Macy's.

[unweird]

1. Tales of the red balloon.

I also had a trip on a Greyhound when I was 8. Solo across multiple state lines. While I wasn’t given a red balloon I did receive instructions to avoid conversations in the mens room. I should have made a break for it but Cleveland (change of buses) didn’t seem all that alluring.

[LuckyCharms]

4. You're the kid who was kicking me on the bus, aren't you.

[unweird]

7. While reading my Superman comic book

[Sanity Claws]

2. Since the summer of the 2020,

obscure memories have come up unbidden.
Is this the only memory that has come up for you or have there been others?
In my case, I think the forced isolation of the pandemic has allowed my mind to wander and recall obscure things. Although the height of the isolation has passed, I still more time in solitude than before the pandemic.

[LuckyCharms]

3. There have been many other thoughts.

I'm having some significant health problems lately, so that may be the reason.

I agree with you concerning the pandemic isolation as well. I'm sure that contributes quite a bit to these thoughts/memories.

Little things that you just kind of push out of your mind suddenly pop up out of no where.

[Marthe48]

5. That was a vivid memory

I've been sorting family pictures, watching especially for pictures to send to my cousin. As I sort, I have memories. Yesterday, NolaBear posted a video of a model railroad setup and I got a rush of memories about the train my Dad and brothers set up in the basement.

The balloon was a great idea. My family drove across country in 1957, and stopped at all of the major landmarks on the way. When we stopped to see The Grand Canyon, my Mom tied a length clothesline around our waists, so we couldn't get separated . She led, then 5 kids, and my grandmother brought up the end of the line. My sister-in-law saw a picture of us heading up a promontory and started laughing hysterically. She said, "What? If one of you fell over the edge, you'd all fall over the edge?" And laughed some more.

[LuckyCharms]

6. LOL, you drew a very good picture with your last paragraph.

I'm glad that you have a lot of pictures. Isn't it great to go through them? Are you going to digitize them? It's serendipitous to me that you mentioned your cousin, because my cuz sent me a bunch of old pics that I've never seen before. This happened only a few weeks ago. It was a nice surprise.

My home was flooded pretty badly in 2011. Between my wife and I, we had somewhere around 3,000 pictures that drowned in the flood waters.

Neighbors on the more elevated end of my street laid all of our pictures out in their front yards, between layers of paper towels, to dry them out the best that they could. After that, I spent 4 or 5 days with a blow dryer on my front porch further drying them.

I'd say about 85% of the pictures survived the flood, albeit with a lot of imperfections due to water damage. I've scanned the really special pictures and have them saved in the cloud, on my computer, on USB sticks, etc.

[Marthe48]

8. The pictures are an ongoing project

I have pictures from 6 generations, plus family pictures from my husband's family. I started digitalizing several years ago, started with pictures that were damaged or fragile. We've created some family albums, too. My cousin lost many of her pictures from when she was young. I am scanning pictures she might like to have, and others that catch my eye. I use a red crayon and put a mark on the back to show it is scanned. If I have a long strectch of time, I write info in pencil on the back of the picture. As I've been going through, there has been a lot of detective work trying to figure which side of the family and who they are. I put a caption on the pictures I scan. I'm saving them on a desktop, an external harddrive and my laptop. Last year, I got a hard drive corral that I can put old hard drives in and retrieve pictures from the hard drives. One thing I've learned since I started is that all of my family love seeing the old pictures. My grandkids are asking me if I had phones when I was a kid and other (to me) hilarious questions. If I find pictures of when I was very young, I show them, to prove it wasn't the horse and buggy days. lol


I am so sorry to hear you lost some of your pictures in a flood. Glad you salvaged so many. And good neighbors! If you have trouble with mold or mustiness, you can put the pictures in a plastic bag, seal it and put them in the freezer for a couple of weeks. I've had good luck not only with pictures, but fabric, and books