The things memories are made of...

I'm in Atlanta this week on business. I spend a lot of time on the road, and am thankful that one of my customers is in the southeast. There's an odd comfort in hearing "ya'll" and seeing things like fried green tomatoes and peach cobbler on the restaurant menu. Mind you...the whole 8 years of my formative youth spent in upstate NY causes me to avoid those things, but they still make me smile anyways.

I really never considered Atlanta some place memorable....even though I've been here many times before. However, this time I'm staying right downtown - and I seem to be surrounded by memories. I'm in the Westin, which is a very tall round building. On the top is the Sundial Restaurant, Bar & View (I really like the way they named that), which is a rotating restaurant where you can enjoy fine dining while getting a 360-degree view of the city. It just so happens that I ate at that restaurant - circa 1982. My aunt and uncle were living in Atlanta at the time, and we came to visit. What I remember most is that my brother got up to go to the restroom, and when he came out, our table had obviously moved. He ended up in tears because he thought he'd been abandoned. I thought he was a sissy. (still do for that matter :-) ). I must say, a rotating restaurant is cool at any age.

Then I leave the hotel tonight to go to dinner, and across the street is the Hard Rock Cafe. It just so happens that I celebrated my 21st birthday with my Mom there. She was in Atlanta for business, I was not too far up the road at Clemson. We met there - I'm sure I drank some form of alcohol, but that part wasn't terribly memorable. It was one of the few times in my memory where my Mom was the mom and I was the child. There have been way too many years where the opposite was true.

It's a weird little trip down memory lane. My youth and my family can be aptly described as highly dysfunctional. I'd have to say that rarely do I have purely happy memories that aren't tinged by some sort of negativity. It was quite nice to have these little glimpses into what was happy and normal in my life all those years ago.