Moody Monday: Deep Memories

 

Happy 67th Birthday to my sister Karen. 

I was in kindergarten the first time my family visited the Grand Canyon, and we returned again a year later, both times we were there on March 18th. The date is enshrined in family history, it is my sister's birthday.  The memories are distant, and reinforced by slides and movie film of those early visits.  The photo above is from one of the Kodachrome slides my father took during those visits.  

A few things that stand out in my memory from those early visits. The first view of the canyon, you never forget it.  A gift shop operated by American Indians near the south rim.  I remember shopping there, buying picture postcards that I still have, a huge oversized pencil, and a beaded belt. I remember at the end of the road, a stone building with a shop in it, and a warm wood fire in a fireplace.  I remember cuddling onto a fur throw next to an Indian, I was very comfortable, my mother was a little freaked out.  And dinner in the dining room at the El Tovar hotel, a couple of tables over was a table of astronauts. They were in the Canyon studying geology, in preparation for landing on the moon.  I was too shy to go over and say Hi, my oldest brother was not shy. 

I have been back to the Canyon twice as an adult.  The first time in the middle 1980's. I had been in Scottsdale for a sales training program, rented a car and drove up and spent the night.  And about a dozen years ago, in the late spring, I had been at the Equal Justice Conference in Phoenix, and drove up and spent a couple of nights.  I have a couple of scanned slides from the 1980's trip. From the last visit I have a couple of prints, the digital files were all lost in a hard drive failure - I started running backup drives after that.