Flashbacks and Memories

Today, we had pork chops and corn on the cob for dinner. For possibly the first time ever, I actually bought ears of fresh corn at the grocery store, and we shucked them and removed the silks at home. Brought back lots of memories of spending the better part of summer at my grandparents' house in northern Alabama. Me-maw and I would pick corn from the field behind the house, then shuck and silk it that afternoon while watching TV. Then we'd eat it for dinner.

As an adult, I've always gotten frozen or canned corn, so when I handled the fresh ears, it brought back an old, familiar feeling. I don't have a word for the feeling, I just know how I felt spending time with my grandmother as a preteen. Once we started shucking and I smelled the fresh corn, the flashbacks started in earnest. Hot summer afternoons, walking through the corn rows, pulling the ears, carrying them inside. The shucking, even flashes of stringing beans, and of cutting watermelon outside at the picnic table with all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins around. I could taste the corn before we even wrapped it in foil to prepare it for the grill. It didn't even matter that we never grilled it back then.

My grandparents are both gone now, and I miss them a lot. Granddad was the last to go, and now the old house is sold, so I can't even go back and visit where these memories were formed. But I know one thing - I can feel like I'm back there once in a while. Yup, I bet I eat a lot more fresh corn in the future.