Making a Memory Souvenir

One of my relatives visited Pike Place Market in Seattle recently and took home a memory souvenir.

What’s a memory souvenir?

Not an actual item, necessarily, but an experience that triggers a pleasant memory.

Here’s the nine-second video:

She didn’t need to buy anything, she took a picture to remember a fun outing.

How it works

This video triggered a memory souvenir for me–and reminded me of a physical one as well.

I first visited Pike Place Market as a sixteen year old.

Other members of the party were my mom, brothers and grandmother. 

(Great-grandmother to the fish catcher in the video.)

We strolled the cool corridors among the flowers–I can smell them now, can’t you if you’ve been there?

Puget Sound stretched magnificently west from the windows. (Can you imagine the colors and the beauty of my beloved Olympic Mountains?)

We heard the sing-song coaxing of the fish tossers.

Which made us laugh.

Further down, we paused at the leather workers who lined a wall that day. (Can you smell the leather products?)

My grandmother (who as far as I remember only made gifts, never bought them) watched me finger a leather key fob.

My driver’s license was two weeks old; I learned to drive freeways on this trip.

She smiled, asked me in broken English/Italian if I liked it, and bought it for me.

I still have it.

All these years later, it’s on my key ring.

Provoking a memory souvenir.

My key ring is an object. I pick it up every day.

But only on viewing that video did I stop to remember my first visit to Pike Place.

The video stirred the memory–the singing, the laughter, the place and my grandmother now dead 25 years.

The market came alive again and, just like every time I visit it, I remembered my grandmother and that day so long ago.

Senses trigger the memories.

A spice reminds me of my grandmother.

A scent of cigarette smoke brings back another relative.

Passionfruit gelato–no matter where I eat it–evokes a fun evening in Firenze.

How to make one?

Do you ever stop and ask yourself on any given day, “what do I want to remember?”

Have you ever seen a view that made you want to take a photo–great–or imprint in your memory banks?

That’s a memory souvenir deliberately made.

If you’re out with children, ask them to pause and look around. “What do you see? What do you want to remember?”

Impress the image, the smells, the touch into your mind right there.

Anne Shirley (of Green Gables) liked to make memories, often in dramatic form. Here’s one:

“And I will always love thee, Diana,” said Anne, solemnly extending her hand. “In the years to come thy memory will shine like a star over my lonely life.”

(Okay, she was being ridiculous, but that’s part of Anne’s charm. Then again, she thought she’d never see Diana again.)

Pay attention as you go through your day, as you travel to exotic places but also as you interact with loved ones.

You never know when that memory will be sweet.

Tweetables

Why  not make a memory souvenir rather than buy one? Click to Tweet

What’s a memory souvenir? Click to Tweet

Pike’s market video, an old key fob and Grammy comes alive again. Click to Tweet