Reflections From The Kitchen Sink on The Twilight Zone
Have you ever ventured back to a place from an earlier stage in life and had a Twilight Zone feeling overtake you?
That has happened a few times to me lately. The most recent was at a basketball arena where my boys and I went to support a local team at the regional tournament. Walking in, I had thought my mind would make the facility more familiar, but I was immediately lost in a haze of mystery. Rod Serling wasn’t around to give me the tour, so I had to take on the journey alone. I entered the gym and was astounded. It was nothing like I remembered.
Cue the sci-fi music and try visualize complete bewilderment on my face. Because we were there to watch our local team, I had the pleasant distraction of some local faces. I meandered through the crowd and greeted a few folks on my way to my seat, but running simultaneously in my mind was an effort trying to reassemble my memories to match what I was seeing in the present. It was surreal just like The Twilight Zone.
My mental juggling included a conversation with myself that was as monotone as a Zone intro. Questions ran rampant. Why does this place look smaller? Where did the nuns sit? (I went to a Catholic college with a fun pep section of nuns at all our games.) How many times did I run these stairs during practices?
I’m not one who enjoys doing age-related math, but I realized it had been over 33 years since I entered that gym for the first time for a college practice. Almost 2/3 of my life ago. Back then, that gym was huge compared to the one at my high school. The WOW factor of the gym seemed watered down to me until my boys quizzed me a bit. Here’s where the surprise Zone-like ending came in.
My boys thought it was cool just to experience a little piece of their mom’s history. I realized we were sitting opposite from where the nuns with the bass drum and gravel in milk jugs sat. I laughed through the story of my getting three fouls in less than three minutes during a game I started and pointed to the approximate spot where all three calls happened. My older son said he guessed I got to sit down the rest of that half. He was correct. I told my younger son about how some of us scraped money together to see professional wrestling there. Even name dropped some of the now legends who were there that night. He was impressed, and the Zone didn’t feel so foreign by that point. The facility may have looked physically smaller, but the memories I could pull up were just as big if not bigger to my kids. That was pretty amazing.
I haven’t been back to that city that was my home for six years for more than a few hours in decades, and the trips have all been at night. I decided that maybe a drive in the daylight hours might be a fun adventure sometime soon. Reminiscing and knocking some cobwebs off. Trying to find my first spots of attempted independence. That might be worth the time one day. Perhaps there will be some more “Zoning” my boys would find entertaining.
When I was younger, I doubted the speed of time passing when it was referenced by my elders just like most kids do. I never thought I would be out of the loop or looking at the second half of life wondering where the first half went. My trip to the gym last night made me realize those elders were so right. That’s the lesson from this real-life episode of The Twilight Zone.
There is also a heart tug with a tear or two here at the kitchen sink today thinking through it all. Oh, me. I think it is time for that second cup of coffee…and a tissue.
Until next time…
Bio-Melinda Campbell is a retired educator who currently focuses her efforts on raising her two teenaged boys, advocating for individuals with special needs and against drunk driving, and serving in her local community. Melinda has been gaining recognition for her writings labeled “Reflections from my Kitchen Sink” since the tragic death of her husband Michael in 2015. In her stories, she shares observations from her daily life including moments she has as a solo parent, a widow, and a woman who battles significant health issues including fibromyalgia and depression. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT- New Kitchen Sink Merchandise-Click Here?
