Elvis lives, Mitchell, South Dakota

Elvis lives, Mitchell, South Dakota
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Sometimes when talk about where America is going (almost never with approval, the variation only comes in opinionis on how fast we are going there) gets to be more than a person can stand, something silly seems to satisfy a need, Here is one such frivol from a road trip.
Elvis as icon, and instantly recognizable. It seems like only yesterday that they had to raise the camera angle so his gyrating hips would not be transmitted to watchers of Ed Sullivan's TV show. What a sweet memory, good for at least one giggle. And then he got drafted.

When my husband was in graduate school, we lived with my parents. My youngst brother had an LP of the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie, He played it at least once every day. So to me that music belongs to that time, when my children were small and my brother was still in high school. And still alive.
Today it rained a great deal, intermittently throughout the day. At the end of the afternoon the sun came out and caused the newly washed foliage to gleam in the slanting light. There was a golden line on the rim of the green hills near Stanford.
Slightly later, clouds over the western foothills took a shape, like mountains of whipped cream, I hadn't seen before. There were creamy piles of froth, lots of lavender-tinted froth, darker lavender shadows and some peach-colored accents. Bright blue sky on one side of the valley, and a large gray cloud over the other. For the first time in quite a while, I had not brought my camera. So I am writing about it here, to help me remember how happy it made me.

rainswept sidewalks
blossoms of evergreen pear
arch over my head

Haiku are also good ways of remembering. Years later, one I have written will bring back the cicumstances when it was written: who was there, what we saw, what we were doing, or talking about.

Why, they are almost as good as a blog!