Wordless Wednesday: Grandma's Lilac Tree

A Childhood Memory Come True.... (Part 2)

photo provided by: Rene Corwin Young

March 2009

St. Ignace, MI

When I first started my story I told you about a Childhood Memory that my cousin helped me relive when she came to Texas in October of 2007. This story and the photos are of the memory. While the photos are recent, they took me back to 1974....

I have not been able to get a specific date, but I think the date was sometime in 1974 when my mom took my sister and I to St. Ignace MI to visit her parents. My memories of the trip are nothing but pleasant other than the fact that my YIYI had passed away prior to us arriving.

While there I discovered SNOW for the very first time. My memory was of me playing outside and something started to falling and I asked what it was. I was told that Grama responded by telling me it was Snow and i began to run around the lilac tree singing...: It's Snowing, It's Snowing". I was told later by my cousin that everyone stood in the door laughing and smiling at my enjoyment. The picture of the tree above is the very tree that I have such a wonderful memory of and it's covered in snow.

The other memory I have is of something that reminded me of a bridge tower. However, I never could exactly find out what that was. Until April of 2007. When I first spoke to my cousin I mentioned the memory and she instantly told me it was the Mackinac Bridge This is a photo of almost my exact memory. Rene spent several months trying to get the perfect shot of the memory I had described to her and this is as close as it gets. I remember being a little closer, probably almost directly under it as I woke from the back seat and looked up. But this photo is perfect.

Thanks Rene for the memories!

A Childhood Memory Come True....

In 1974, my mom took my little sister Kristi and I on a trip from TEXAS to MICHIGAN to see our Grandparents for the very first time. I have no memory of the the plan ride there or back. The two memories that I remember most are of the "mackinaw bridge" and "SNOW".

I remember riding in the back of a car and something woke me up. I asked my mom .."ARE WE THERE"? And she told me not yet, but as I looked up, I saw one of the towers on the bridge almost as it is in the picture attached but almost from underneath and lots of bright lights. For years I had this memory stuck in my head and as I got older I thought it had just been a dream. I never knew the name of the bridge or where it was, I just knew we were driving and it was a bridge.

Upon the first conversation with my cousin in 2007, I mentioned this dream while talking about her memory of our visit to St. Ignace. The moment I mentioned my memory she knew exactly what I was talking about. The next day she started sending me pictures of the bridge that she had taken over the years and then started going to take more just for me. Trying to get the perfect shot of my memory. If you look, you will see two towers supporting the bridge. My memory is of one of those look almost straight up and it was dark, other than all the lights which light the bridge.

My Second memorie is "SNOW"... my very first memory of ever seeing it. While visiting my family in St. Ignace MI, I happend to be playing in the backyard of my grandmothers and all at once, something was falling out of the sky. I don't remember anything else, other than my grandmother saying, it's "SNOW" and running around saying...."It's Snowing, It's Snowing". My mom and Cousin later told me thought our conversations that was exactly what I did. She said they all stood in the doorway watching me run around my grandmother's lilac tree.

It's funny now, becasue Lilac has always been my favorite flower and frangrance. Never knowing that my childhood memory that meant so much was held around a lilac tree.