Georgia - Florida - Georgia Part 5

Jackson Street Bookstore

I went to this bookstore in Athens before we left for Florida. It was a wonderful store with a little of everything. As usual I brought my memo book with a list of books that I want to read but I also just walked the aisles picking up anything that looked interesting. I found a book, After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties by Catherine Gildner and since Clarence, Fred and I all grew up in the sixties it seemed like an appropriate book to read on the reunion trip. Just reading the author's note convinced me that I had made a good choice, she said:

"Memory is a tricky business. No two people remember things the same way. Memory is not a recording device; it is the brain's way of allowing us to select moments in order to interpret our pasts. All of the images on file in our brains pass through elaborate screens of unconscious needs and emerge as memories. This book is a telling of my story as I remember it". 

That statement was proven over and over during the time that the three of us spent sharing and remembering out past shared experiences. The "big things" were fairly consistent in our memories but many of the "details" were sometimes remembered three different ways. Somethings as big as how we all wound up enlisting in the Navy and how we all wound up with the same tattoos and who else has them were even remembered differently. That book and the experiences during our visit convinced me that I want to continue researching the past and blogging as well as blogging the present while it is still fresh in my memory. 

I remember how disappointing it was trying to talk with my parents toward the end of their lives about our lives when I was growing up and often they both had different memories of where we lived and when. So if I could give any advice to someone reading this post it would be to document your story while it is happening. Journal, blog, take pictures, whatever it takes because someday you may want to remember and people in your life will want to ask questions. 

Sometimes something as simple as looking at a picture will bring back a flood of memories and that is why I'm grateful that I have always been a prolific photographer. Every picture has the potential to open a flood of memories. 

After our trip to Cocoa Beach Clarence and I started our reunion with Fred and his wife Leah at the cabin in northern Florida on the Santa Fe River very close to the Ichetucknee River. Ironically it was very close to where Jackie and I had gone tubing with Jeff and his family many years ago. We jammed a lot of fun and sharing of memories in less than 24 hours at the cabin before we left to go to their home in Georgia.

And those pictures are just from the first day that we were at Fort White, Florida. The next day after a great breakfast that Leah fixed for us we went tubing before packing up to head for Folkston, Georgia where Fred and Leah have their home.