Saturday 11 July 2020

Snippets of Memories - The Turtle

Certain things that I watch on tv or read in a book will take me back in time to some memory. Sometimes a scent or a piece of music will do the same thing. Here is a strange little memory that I haven't thought of in years and years, but oddly enough emerged while I was watching an episode of Very Scary People about Jim Jones. The programme said that when he was young, the dynamic cult leader would hold preaching sessions with his friends nodding and listening, and would perform funeral services for animals killed on the road. 

I must have been no more than eight years old, because we still lived at the old house by the highway, the big old yellow brick house that my parents rented out in the country before my father built our house. I had been at the farm where my grandmother and my uncle lived. The Thames River ran through the farm land and the river was a favourite place of mine. Naturally, the river would attrack all kinds of wildlife and there were fish and crayfish and ducks, as well as turtles. 

That particular day, I had discovered a small painted turtle that had been run over by some machinery or the farm truck or a tractor in the laneway of the farm. I loved animals and really felt for them, so I showed someone, maybe my mother, this tiny dead turtle. The turtle was placed in an empty Meggezone tin. Meggezones were a type of lozenge that my grandmother always had on hand. 

Later that day, likely after my father had come home from work, back at our place, a solemn little service was held at the edge of the field beside our home. My father said some appropriate words, I'm pretty sure my older sister and my mother were also in attendance, and the little tin was placed in the ground and covered up. My father would do things like that, when I was young. I thought it was very nice to do that for the turtle, although none of us were particularly religious or attended church. Later my father joined a church just so that he could sing in the choir. He had his own version of spiritualism. 

So there is my little snippet of a memory. I find that I do more of this as I get older - harken back to things in my childhood, my past. Maybe you have a similar memory. 

40 comments:

  1. It's a treasure to be given back this memory. I hope if you have more such remembrances you will post them here.

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  2. And I meant to add that your parents sound like very special people.

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  3. We used to have Meggezones. They were like a must have for colds and sore throats. It was always "Have a Meggezone". Weird. Nice story about your past and your connections with land and farming.

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    1. Yes, they were used for the same at the farm. Those little tins never got thrown out. They were always used for something else.

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  4. What a lovely little post..
    Meggezones! Yes! Goodness! :).

    And..when you get older and into your 70's
    say, memories flash through your mind, all
    day long, and when you meet up with fiends
    for tea/coffee or a drink..it's always...
    "Do you remember when"..HeHe! 2~3hrs later..
    And at 72 l am amazed at the amazing memory
    l still have..l amaze myself..l think that's
    amazing to..! :).

    Now! Where did l put my mug of tea..? :o).
    Turtles...🐢 🐢 🐢 🐢 🐢 🐢 🐢

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    1. I find that something just makes a connection with something else, and you are remembering something that you haven't thought of in such a long time.

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  5. That's a lovely memory of your father and your childhood. The turtle rested in peace.

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  6. It is said that Caruso's mother would always arrive 15 minutes late for church, just so everyone could notice the difference her voice made to the quality of the singing.

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    1. My father listened to Caruso often, though he himself was not a tenor.

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  7. I am the same with memories - as I get older more and more memories are triggered by something I see or read or hear. I can't just pull one out of the air to put here - it will have to surface first - so maybe another day

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  8. It is undeniable if we get older, we will often remember the beauty of childhood and also sometimes feels aging very quickly.

    Have a good day.
    Greetings from Indonesia.

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  9. Jenn this is such a lovely memory - thanks for sharing. Singing is certainly one way to give praise to the joys in & of the world. I worked with a man that said everyone should be in a choir, it would cut crime because while you sing you cannot be angry or sad. Oh yes, the celebrations I mentioned in my last comment, don't you have a birthday coming up? ... Mary-Lou =^[..]^=

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    1. I do. How did you remember that?!? I joined a choir once and really enjoyed it. My father was a tremendous singer and sang at our wedding.

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  10. I, too, reading this feel that your parents knew how to raise children! The sweet memory brought back to you testifies to that. Curiously, my daughter recently has started to think of things from her childhood and is beginning discussions with, "Do you remember when . . . " Somethings I do remember and others? Hmmm, are her memories different than mine . . . or is it that perhaps my brain cells no longer have the capability to retain so much?

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    1. Your daughter must be younger than I am, but yes, it is easier to remember things from my childhood sometimes than it is to remember something from last week!

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  11. And great idea to join the church to sing!

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    1. He picked the church according to how good their choir was.

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  12. That's a sweet memory Jenn, and a very cool thing your dad did! When we were driving the other day, a large turtle was crossing the road, we got out and helped it to the other side. We felt better after doing that!

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    1. I used to see many more turtles than I do now on the roads. That's a nice thing to do, just be careful with snapping turtles.

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  13. Yes, I do but I wasn't the young one in this memory. It was my teenage son. He had a dog that he loved dearly and finally it got so old and was sick and so we had to have him put down. My son, husband and daughter went down in the pasture from our house and buried Smokey on top of the bluff where my son and that dog had played often. I am not a dog person but Smokey was pretty special.

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    1. We have a cat "burial ground" on our property! I remember when we had to have my childhood dog put to sleep. It affected everyone and she was buried out by the lightpost on my parents' property.

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  14. Very sweet memory! I have moments like that too, but retaining them is the problem.

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    1. Oh for sure, and my sister and I will often have different memories of the same thing.

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  15. My worst memory is the drowned opossum in my swimming pool. No one would come to fish it out so I had to do the deed myself. Animal services would only pick it up from the sidewalk and it sat there (in a bucket) for three days. The flies were swarming!

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    1. Ironically, we also had an opossum in our pool. I remember freaking out as we were walking around the pool, about to pull back the solar blanket and seeing fur. I was worried it was our cat!

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  16. My daughter inherited the Neighborhood cat when her friend moved away, and she was responsible for him for several years. Even had him neutered! When Neighborhood died, in her kitchen overnight, she stashed him in her freezer. She rounded up some friends and they came and buried Neighborhood in the animal burial ground in our woods.

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    1. I know of someone else who kept her dead cat in the freezer (all wrapped up) because it died in the winter time and she wanted to bury it properly in the spring. That's sweet that your daughter cared for the cat. Was that seriously his name??

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  17. I love this story. I don't remember what we did with the turtle I had that died. I thought he might be cold so I put his pan by the radiator and the water dried up and so did he. I'll always wonder what we did with the poor guy.

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    1. Oh dear. Did your turtle live in one of those little green dishes with the fake palm tree? I remember an older cousin having a little turtle. It had a distinctive smell.

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  18. Oh yes! We have several funerals, as I recall. For turtles, kittens, etc. Great memory, Jenn.

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  19. I enjoyed reading your turtle story. I could almost feel like I was there as I read it. Thank you.

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  20. Ah, beautiful memories. As children (and adults) my brother and I had tiny funeral services for animals that have died. Emjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.

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  21. Jenn, a side note regarding grocery prices; at Costco today I got 9 chicken breasts for $26.22 - so you may want to take a trip there to stock up. :)

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    1. Alas, for me to get to Costco, would be over an hour each way. I don't need it that badly! This past weekend, chicken thighs were a much better price.

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  22. Oh, what a sweet memory! We only had one pet funeral, around the toilet when Cyril & Esmerelda the goldfish died of "fungus". But I felt so guilty as I knew that I'd let a feral neighbourhood child into the home earlier in the week and she'd tried to catch the goldfish with her grubby hand in the fishbowl, and I never 'fessed up about it.

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  23. Sending Happy Birthday wishes, Jenn, from a birthday twin, my husband. We both hope that despite these times that you have a wonderful day however it’s spent, hopefully doing something you enjoy and with those you love.
    I have fallen way behind in blog reading but spent some time today reading many of your older posts. Glad you and your family are doing well.

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