Where’s Home?

They say you can’t go home again. Our family still owns and rents  my childhood home. During the past thirty years, I’ve visited about three times and had an opportunity to roam the rooms again this week. It still amazes me how small everything looks compared to how I thought of it as a child.

                                      This is me in our kitchen at around age 6. 

While touring my former home, I recalled the places where our furniture sat, where my chalkboard stood when I played school, the heating vent I huddled beside after an afternoon of playing in the snow, and the dining room alcove where I played receptionist, taking phone messages for the family. I guess I had an active imagination, and so does this guy:    

                                     https://youtu.be/PHjvySrshVI

  

It's funny how we see things as adults compared to when we were children. This week, I saw that the flooring, paint, and wallpaper I grew up with had disappeared, but the fireplace, iron railing, and built-in kitchen counter remained. My childhood house will never look exactly like my old home, but my feelings about it are the same. When you think of your home, what comes to mind?     

Dissecting Earworms

I bet you have an earworm. It sounds bad, but not really. It’s nothing that will get you a guest appearance on the show “Monsters Inside Me.”  An earworm is the catchy tune that sticks in our heads long after the song has ended. I pick up earworms quite easily. I can hear someone sing or hum a tune and before long I’m humming it, too. It takes me forever to memorize something, but give me the music from an old song I haven’t heard in years and the lyrics come right back to me.  

 There’s something about music and memory that go hand-in-hand. Why is it that we can remember old lyrics, but we forget where we put our sunglasses and keys? Here’s a tip for how to kick that unwanted stuff out of our heads to make room for important things:

                                              http://youtu.be/GckKbSr0Gx4

We’re set! Now we’ll have room to remember names, faces and where we left our cell phone chargers.  Any information can be transformed into song. What important information could an earworm help you to remember?