Miss Mary Mack


 

Over the weekend, I was in a converted old school house from the 1920’s.  This unique brick building was restored in great condition.  The floors in the banquet room and a couple other rooms were original to the building.  While we were waiting for dinner and music to start I was in the banquet room sitting on the stage with the original wood floors.  As I was there looking at the beautiful old floors, it took me back to  many years when this same girl many years younger was sitting on a very similar floor.

I instantly remember playing clapping games, “Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack.”  Hundreds of memories came pouring in.  I remember saying other rhymes as well but I do not recall them until I did a little research. “Miss Susie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell, and Miss Susie went to heaven…”  Memory triggers can be anything, a smell, a picture, a sight or music. 

It made me ponder.  Something as simple as an old wood floor can make the memories of elementary years long ago come back.  What a gift.  You know they say we remember moments not days.  I do not remember what days I sat on the old wood floor in the gym at Theresa A. Mulvey Elementary School, Westbrook, Connecticut, but I remember some of those moments. 

What things has God brought into our lives to help us recall simpler times?  What moments are the most precious when you look back and see God’s hand on your life? What moments are we making for our children?  What moments will we remember as our time draws short?