Memories...and the Amazing Brains That Hold Them

(The HOUSE - all is well this week! Things are proceeding according to plan, and even though there were a few hitches yesterday, they've all been ironed out, and we are still on schedule to close on both houses in two weeks. We were all feeling excited again last night - the light at the end of the tunnel grows larger every day!)

Yesterday morning I was having breakfast with Aimee and Chase (the boys were, uncharacteristcally, sleeping in) and we heard something on the radio about "The Price is Right." I was telling Aimee about my most vivid memory of that game show; namely, the time I was in second grade and home from school because of unusually cold weather, and I was watching it with my mom. As we watched, the program was interrupted to show the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, and thus I witnessed the demise of the same. I told Aimee that even at the memory, I still have that slightly sick feeling in my stomach we often get when watching disasters those kinds of disasters unfold. Drew had come in as I was telling this, and we began talking about something they might have seen in their lifetime that would have had a similar impact on them (this really wasn't as dark a discussion at it seems! we were actually having a neat sharing time). I asked if they remembered Hurricane Katrina, because I know they had watched some of that coverage with me, and Aimee at first wasn't sure, but Drew immediately piped up, "Yeah, there was that city underwater! You remember," he prompted Aimee, "all the water came because of the lake." I was puzzled for a moment, but then a memory hit me - watching someone on CNN explain how Lake Pontchartrain compounded the disaster. Then I was completely astounded that Drew, who was just 3 at the time, could still remember that! Aren't their little minds incredible?!?!?!