grapes

Do you ever have those moments when a sound, or a smell, or a taste just makes a memory explode in your head?  I had one of those rare moments last night.  Kiddo and I were walking around Hubby's parents' farm with my sister-in-law and her two cats last night. We walked past the grape arbor, and I plucked off a grape and popped it in my mouth.

The strength of the memories that one grape instantly triggered was slightly shocking.  It's hard to put in to words the feelings and memories and emotions that were brought up as I rolled that grape around with my tongue.  I remembered going out as a child and picking the grapes off of a vine somewhere, one after the other, and snacking on them, spitting out the seeds as I walked in the yard.  I had to call my mom to figure out where the grapes were that I was remembering.  We finally worked out that we had had grape vines along the fence at the edge of our yard when we were renting a house out in Eastern Washington.  I was about five or six years old.  I have several other random memories from that house - it is amazing to me how rich and vivid many of them are.  I wonder if there's something about being six - do you experience life more intensely, live it more fully, when you are young?