Why did the man throw the clock out the window?

Because time flies! That was an old Floppy Show joke, told ad nauseum at least once a show - and poor Duane had to listen to it every weekday for 20 some years!

But I titled this post in such a way because - time does fly! It's been EIGHT months since I've posted anything on this blog. What a shame - I am slapping myself with a wet noodle as I type.

This evening I was posting pictures from my family - the Keasey family - to Facebook, and even though some of them were taken 40 plus years ago, I can remember the smell and sounds and atmosphere of the day. Especially those Keasey family Christmases. They were usually on Christmas day - it seemed they were always fraught with tension and stress.

My parents were so young! I remember being dressed up, each of us in our 'best'. I remember the tension coming from mom and dad because dad would undoubtedly drink too much and he and grandma would get in a fight or there would be a 'scene' with one of his sisters. I remember how my mom felt inadequate - that her clothes weren't the best, that we kids would reflect poorly on her as a mother, that dad's drinking would reflect poorly on her as a wife. I can't imagine bearing that responsibility as a 22 year old!

I posted some pictures of the horrible monkeys and their 'playing' with my mom and brothers. I mentioned these beasts in a previous post. I posted the pictures as proof that I was not fabricating this monkey business, as I know it seems such a rare situation for the 60's. I can remember the screeching and their sharp little fingers they liked to poke in your ears and nose and those grabby hands pulling your hair. They smelled too. Like, well, like you'd imagine a monkey to smell. Dank, of urine, a little crazy - if crazy has a smell, and I like to think it does.

There are pictures of the diner and motel that Grandpa and Grandma Keasey owned. When I look at them I feel summer heat (as that is when we usually visited), I smell newly spread white gravel's dust. I feel the stiff, starchy- clean, blindingly white sheets of the motel beds. I hear the humbuzz of the air conditioner in the motel room (a luxury we did NOT have at home). It was like heaven, staying in that clean, quiet motel room.

There are pictures of my cousins - all of us youngsters of course. Linda, who was the epitome of beauty for the time (still is actually) - golden hair, rosy skin, I adored her! When she started dating her husband, Craig Flathers, I would sometimes be sent along as a chaperone. One time in particular, I think we went to see the movie Herbie the Love Bug, she gave me a pony tail fall...falls (hair extensions now) were very popular then. I remember sitting in the front seat with Linda in the middle. I was enamored of Craig too - he was such a handsome young man, and a bit 'rakish' - maybe like Kenickie of the movie Grease. Craig would put his hand on Linda's knee and hold her hand - I thought they were so romantic and naughty!

My cousin David is in the pictures too. He was a shy boy, but always quick to smile. He was thin with big ears, as the pictures will show. When he was a young teenager, he was stylin'! He had the puca shell necklace, the long blonde hair and the big bell bottom jeans with a hemp belt - true early 70's fashion extraordinaire! But in the pictures, he looks like all little boys from the early 60's - no indication of the rebel he was about to be when he hit the teenage years!

And then there is Uncle Daryle - who was only 7 years older than me and always, always in every picture, because he was always, always in my life. He passed away a few years ago and I miss him dearly....sometimes daily. Growing up with Daryle was special. He made me feel smart and beautiful and destined to do something great. He was bright and articulate and charasmatic. Everyone loved him and me most of all.

There are pictures of my mom and dad as young, young people. I was born when they were both 18 years old. By the time my brother Tony was born, they were only 23! They had four kids under the age of 5 by the time they were 23. This astounds me, although I know it was not unusual for the times.

There are pictures of them at holidays, at each new child's 'home coming' and some before they were parents - just having fun. I have a lot of my dad as a child - as I mentioned he was the 'golden boy' in the family and those pictures prove that. He has sailor suits so he can look like his daddy (Grandpa Roy) who was in the Navy.

Posting these pictures and looking back on the pictures in my Facebook album "Tammy Grows Up" made me see how fast the time we have on earth flies. Most of my life, I've been so worried about the little things in the big scheme of life that I haven't always enjoyed and treasured those every day things.

I have only one regret in my life, so far, and it is that I wasted such a great amount of time "getting through" portions of it, that I missed some simple pleasures, didn't form some everyday memories. And as science of the brain has proven, as we age, we tend to remember most clearly those things that happened a long time ago. Our short-term memory tends to fade and so days of our fifties and sixties won't be as memorable as the days of our childhood and young adulthood. Truly, I am ashamed.