By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Recently I walked down memory lane and reached into my past to call old friends that I hadn’t contacted for years. I talked with one who moved in with her son as she could not take care of her home anymore. However, since it was far away from her old neighborhood she confessed that she was really bored a lot of the time. I tried cheering her up with some ideas that I use to stay involved in the world. Clinging to a past that is no longer viable only brings sadness. My motto is, “Do whatever you can do with your life to bring joy into your world.” My system is to keep contact information for all your friends and contact these friends from time to time. I don’t ever want to be one of those people who bemoan the fact that an old friend died without having had recent contact with that friend.

I have been fortunate that I have not had to move from familiar surroundings. I have never moved from my present home that was established before I began having children. As a result I have boxes and boxes of collected memories that I can’t bear to part with. I was rummaging through a box of address files that I amassed during the woman’s movement years of the late 1960s. For fun, I started calling people wondering how many phone numbers would still be current. Voila. There were some people who were still at their original numbers from years ago so I have reconnected with some old acquaintances. It was no surprise to find that those friends who remained intellectually active and involved were still living the good life. Granted, good genes is important but keeping one’s mind full of exciting ideas and plans is essential to staying in the mainstream of life.

It is amazing how many of my friends live close by me. But since city living doesn’t seem to encourage dropping in on friends I invited a couple to drop by. To my amazement they brought a wonderful bouquet of flowers. Now that’s neighborliness, right? Then a friend that I met at swim class dropped by to visit bringing her childhood baby doll as I said I had a doll collection. Usually I put away all the dolls in January but here I was, surrounded by my doll collection and Christmas season long gone. One doll that is my oldest one was one I got on Christmas when every little girl was dreaming of one special doll that was advertised even in the little town of Chehalis where I grew up. This doll is one of the few dolls that I owned that survived in the closet of my family home while I was off to college. Our family preserved what we called family treasures to hand down from one generation to the next. I really appreciate special chinaware that came from my mother and her mother before her. I even have an antique Chinaware shaving mug that my father had used. I am not a serious collector but every piece brings back memories of the past.

Change happens without our realizing it sometimes. In our mobile society the world becomes smaller as we venture out into it. But my home gives me stability in a volatile world. In it are copies of my writing and objects that have meaning from my past. I am fortunate that my extended family still come together here to renew family ties. Over the years the family has changed as new great grands have come into the family and existing members have reached out into new territory in their own lives. Yes, change is inevitable so embrace it.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at 206-935-8663 or gnkunkel@comcast.net.