It’s Funny What You Remember…

Posted by Lorren on May 20, 2011

I like the movie Forrest Gump. Towards the beginning of the movie, he remarks that “It’s funny what you remember…” He doesn’t remember being born, but he remembers his first pair of shoes. The saying is true though.

May 18 was the anniversary of the Mount Saint Helens Eruption. Now, my mom remembers the eruption as the day that we were pouring our sidewalks outside of our house. I do remember pouring the sidewalks, but I don’t remember the eruption on that day. We did pour the sidewalk that day; it was written in the cement.

What I remember was coming back from school after a field trip to Seattle with my Kindergarten class. We were at my Aunt Kathy’s house, and she mentioned that Mount Saint Helens erupted that day. When I told that story to my mom before, she reminded me that we poured the sidewalks that day.

Not so fast. While the big eruption occurred on May 18, there were some smaller eruptions that occurred prior to the big one. One of those occurred on May 7th. That day was a Wednesday. The eruption that I remember occurred in the beginning of May. That is the eruption that I remember.

Five year olds don’t pay attention to big events in the news. On May 18, the highlight of my day was pouring the sidewalks in our front yard. On May 7, going to Seattle was a big deal, but for some reason, my Aunt’s announcement also became attached to the memory of that field trip.

It’s funny what you can remember.