A Memory That Lasts

And so it is not to be.  No Hootin an Hollarin this year.  No funnel cakes.  No costume parade.  No Big Parade.  No music in the Gazebo.  No booths.  No tacos.  No....square dancing.

The last item hurts.  Even though we have not danced since last year, it hurts.  It makes our eyes fill with tears.  It's just almost too much to bear.

The picture you see is from a long, long time ago.  We were all younger.  We could dance all night...trying to wear out the band and the fiddler.  Midnight and beyond...the bleachers would be empty..most people had left ...yawning and stretching...saying that they would be back tomorrow night.  And still, there we would be...Just another tune please, we would plead with the musicians.  Just another one until we too had to leave.  

Mist rolling in from the hills.  It would filter down around the street lights as we stomped and yelled and made our way through Grandpa's Baby and Whirl like Thunder.  On and on and on.

This is what I am doing now.  Right now.  And I am determined to do it every day...until this thing is over.  I take my wishes.  I imagine a bright colored balloon.  It can be red or orange or yellow..and maybe even green.  I close my eyes....I envision the thing I am missing ... and carefully, carefully tuck it into that wondrous space called The Future...and let it go.  

It helps me  know that somewhere..sometime...those lovely things will float down and be here again.  But until then, I dream and hope and plan.  A future full of memories.  Memories that last.