Have you ever gone into an ethnic restaurant here in the U.S. and pretended to yourself that you were back in time visiting a foreign land? Jean wanted to find something different for me on Veteran’s Day and so after driving around for a bit we arrived at the Hong Kong restaurant in Durham, NC. Most of the customers were Chinese and it didn’t take but one egg roll and a bit of tea to take me back to my first trip to Hong Kong in June of 1981. I’d given a talk in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the day before and stopped off in Hong Kong for a couple of days. A Chinese attendee at our conference in Malaysia had given me his card and invited me to a small graduation of a class of student in dress design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. I had a couple of hours free on my schedule so I agreed. He introduced me to the three students who had won the highest honors in the competitions.
Their work was outstanding, but who am I to know? They spoke excellent English and I gave them a little pep talk as they started out in pursuit of fame and fortune.
It was no big deal really, but I felt so honored to be asked.
My wife Jean? Well, she was remembering back to when she owned a travel agency in Durham, nearby, and when they got really, really busy one of her agents would slip over to this same Hong Kong restaurant and pick up delicious Chinese lunches for her whole staff.
I’m discovering that there are wonderful memories all over the place.
All you have to do is reach out and pluck them out of the air.
Like you, I do find that sometimes smells, tastes and even the way the rays of the sun are coming through the trees can trigger a vivid memory with details I hadn’t thought about for years.
Often the triggered memories are from intense parts of my life like the birth of my children, death of a grandparent, an intense flight or cruise, a memorable vacation or maybe an interview that I suddenly recall and sometimes wish I’d handled better.
Fun blog, Art!
Like you, I do find that sometimes smells, tastes and even the way the rays of the sun are coming through the trees can trigger a vivid memory with details I hadn’t thought about for years.
Often the triggered memories are from intense parts of my life like the birth of my children, death of a grandparent, an intense flight or cruise, a memorable vacation or maybe an interview that I suddenly recall and sometimes wish I’d handled better.