this missionary can burp loud
I rarely drink soda. But I had a really strong craving for Coke a few days ago. Now, when I say Coke, I don’t mean soda like some people I know. (A-hem.) When I say Coke, I mean Coke.
Anyway, a few of the interns were drinking soda and, since I was desperate for Coke, I asked around to see if anyone had some I could take a sip of. Nope. They were all drinking diet. Blech. But that’s another rant for another day.
I finally went and poured myself a glass of Coke. Two sips in, I was flooded with a memory and I realized why I’d been craving it so much.
Last year we brought the interns to the same place for debriefing. One night while we were here, we started talking about my propensity to burp loudly and how the interns hadn’t yet heard this talent of mine. Laura, one of the interns, was notorious for her loud burps, so we challenged each other to a burp-off. We chugged some Coke in the hopes that it would spur on some amazing gas, and we sat around being unruly and goofy. But burps never came. So we drank more Coke. And more Coke. And more Coke. But we couldn’t burp. I think there was just too much pressure for us to burp on-demand.
Even without burps, that crazy night was so fun. And drinking Coke in the same rented house in the same beautiful town along the southern coast of Africa brought it all back.
I love how sights, smells, and even tastes connect me to so many wonderful memories. Tell us about something that’s connected to a sight, sound, or taste for you…
@cassgirl says:
Ha! Ha!
hmmm..
Let me see..
Oh, I had a customer the other day, she told me that she was a young 80, beautiful beautiful Norwegian woman (accent and all), Well as we looked at her brand new convertible Mercedes, RED of course, we were laughing and getting my job done and she had asked if I could help her up some stairs, She grabbed my hand.
Her hand was soft, warm, and ever so gentle, and it brought me back to my mom’s hands. So soft, smooth and warm. I had to snap out of it and write this young 80′s car that she banged in a parking lot. Geesh.. she was late for BRIDGE!!!
i love how she connected you, in that moment, with your mom.
and i can’t help but giggle at the fact that she drives a convertible mercedes but needs help up the stairs.
@cassgirl says:
yup!! She was so pretty.. Looked like Audrey Hepburn. So delicate!!!
@danielleH says:
a lot of sensory smells bring me back to botswana. diesel, fresh air, camp fire, dusty sand, cream of wheat type foods, cheese-pineapple-apple-onion-combinations, my sleeping bag, milo. :) and i love that.
Celtic music brings back memories of my Irish Grandmother, Nell, the person I was closest to growing up. I don’t cry but there is a video on YouTube of the late Tommy Makem singing “Will You Go Lassie Go” that comes close to bringing a tear to my eye.
Experiencing the wonder, sights, sounds, smells of New York City was a life altering time for me. Whenever I hear a “New York” accent it takes me back to what I think of as my “home town” even though I have never lived there.
thinking this might just lead me to write a post on smemories…just maybe.
I still have an ooooold bottle of Aviance Night Musk that takes me right back to when I went to Hawaii to visit my best friend from high school for 3 weeks the summer before starting college. That was back in ’83 (I said the BOTTLE was old, not me!!!!!).
Okay, so I just got up and smelled it again for the first time in probably years – yup, still the same. Amazing! I can’t believe how the sense of smell can bring back actual feelings and memories so strongly.
Coke will always remind me of an Uncle that always needed his coke and peanut M&M’s to watch the Indy 500 race. But the best memories will be from my first mission trip to Mexico recently. The coke there was great because they use cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Oh how a coke brings back the memories.
The first time we came to SA we both breathed in the air and for whatever reason that resonated home for us. I don’t know what it is…maybe it is mixture of the people, tight and yet open spaces, the hot sun, the flat and mountain sky, the rich and desire…I have no idea but all rolled into a breath we both knew…so now when I get on the plane it is like I am holding my breath until I return back to our beloved home.
@coloraturajoy says:
my MIL (motha in law) always says this little statement that cracks me up every time:
“i could really go for a cold, burpy dr. pepper.”
ha!
@coloraturajoy says:
my MIL (motha in law) always says this little statement that cracks me up every time:
“i could really go for a cold, burpy dr. pepper.”
ha!
@coloraturajoy says:
btw, for reference, she’s the most modest 64 year old woman you ever did see.
@coloraturajoy says:
btw, for reference, she’s the most modest 64 year old woman you ever did see.
Oh Laura and her manners.
@tamhodge says:
disco music takes me back to the 4th grade in southern california. every time i hear it!
also – theres a certain flower, i dont know what it is, but every time i smell it – it takes me back to one day – just one particular day – when i was walking back home from the market (i was jr. high) and i was staring down at the ground studying all the cracks in the road when the smell of this same “unknown” flower caught my attention. i wish i knew what it was.
@ventigrace says:
WOW Kitten… COKE?! And I wasn’t there to share it w/ you??? Shame…
tam — disco!?!?!? i won’t say that that makes you seem old. i won’t. i promise.
haha! My hubby always looks at me like, “honey did you have to do that??” whenever I burp. Sigh. I tell him it’s my own house, but ….
Sights and smells? There’s a lot, but the first in my memory … there’s this particular feeling of fall … I think it’s a specific temperature and feel to the air and smell and everything … which takes me back immediately to watercoloring in high school. I had a watercolor class, and one of the first classes (which was then in the fall) we went outside and just picked something and painted it. For some reason the feel of that day sank into my memory … and sometimes in fall I’ll randomly feel like painting. I’ll wonder why, and remember that day … and sure enough the weather is the same. Fascinating stuff, the brain.
sound…there is nothing like the crack of a wood bat on a baseball…the summer my grandpa/hero was diagnosed with cancer, i played the whole summer with wood bats…there is just something about that sound that gets me going… every time i hear it…and it reminds me of my grandpa watching from inside the van just past the outfield fence…it reminds me of hospital visits after games…and it reminds me of all the great memories i have of him!
@atangie says:
I found out on this trip to Peru that the smell of chain stores in the mall connects me to the States.