Double Order

 

Pleasant childhood memories refresh even the weariest of souls. 

If the truth be told, from time to time we all long to feel special.

About a month ago, I was researching famous first lines of novels when I came across an curious first line, from a book entitled, One Hundred Years of Solitude.  “Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. 

It got me to thinking about several occasions in my childhood when my grandfather took me out for a double order of French fries at his favorite diner. The occasion was usually my birthday and we would arrive at his favorite diner just as breakfast was ending and lunch was beginning. My grandfather was a rotund, shorter, balding man whose voice I could listen to all day.  He was the kind of person who had an air of confidence that I admired and sought to have for myself.  During these special occasions he would order some eggs and coffee and I’d get a double order of as many diner French fries they could pile on a plate. On rare occasion they would even offer a triple order of fries.   Now that was living.

To this day, I can still smell the scent of greasy food and cigarette smoke coming from the diner, as well as hear the dishes clanking as the bus boy collected them.  In my mind’s eye, I can also still see the waitress smile and ask my grandfather who he had brought today.  It is hard to do justice to such a memory that just made me feel so special.  It just had an electric feel about it that you just don’t forget, like it just happened yesterday.  It made me feel secure, comfortable and grown up all at the same time.  Not to mention, I loved eating those greasy fries smothered in ketchup.  But, mostly I think it was just being in the company of someone I deeply admired and loved.

 

It is a strange thing how childhood memories can transport us back in time to a safer place where the world seemed a little less cruel.  Just like the man in the book, One Hundred Years Of Solitude, who was fondly remembering discovering ice, right before he was about to die in front of a firing squad.

  

We all should have some good kind of memory to pull from to help us through the rough spots in life. A moment  when someone took the time to make us feel special and loved; to talk to us like we were a grown-up, even though we weren’t yet.   With that being said, may we all look for opportunities  with the ones we love to reciprocate  the same kind of experience we hard, when our souls smiled.

Cherished memories, like a double of fries with your grandfather, are special treasures God grants to us to make life a little easier to bear up under. 

Swavel