Question of the Week: Memory

What is your most treasured memory?

I've been trying to think all morning of what my "most treasured memory" could be.

The word memory is not capitalized, so obviously it's not talking about that old game I used to play with my cousins as a kid. You know, the one where you have all the cards face down and you have to try and find the matches. I liked the one with the picture of a tiger on it. But I wouldn't call it "treasured." I mean, it's just a piece of cardboard with a tiger on it. Big deal.

I really do have a hard time finding just one treasured memory though. I don't know if that means I've just done such an excellent job of repressing my memories that nothing stands out or if it means that I've just led a pretty good life thus far. Could be a little of both.

I haven't led the perfect life. And I do repress a lot of things.

Okay, I have it. Back in the summer of 2001, Dad and I took a trip together. We had the opportunity to travel up the east coast and go to five Major League Baseball games in five days.

We went with my then Residence Hall Director, Ben, and his wife. But as far my memory is concerned, that trip was about me and Dad. The itenerary started with Baltimore to see the Orioles play. Then we drove up to New York to see the Mets one day, the Yankees the next. We then made our way up to Boston to catch the Sox at Fenway. On the way back home we stopped in Philadelphia to see the Phillies.

It was a once in a lifetime kind of trip. I remember before the fact, he and I debated whether or not we should go. We both wanted to, but we had a lot of questions as to whether we should. This was three years after Dad's bypass surgery. Obviously he wasn't in the best of health. But it was also a few years before was tethered to the O2 machine. He had a hard time keeping up sometimes, especially when we hit Times Square. I felt so bad for him.

I hope that in his last few years, he was able to look back on that trip with as much fondness as I did. I wouldn't trade that week with him for anything.

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.