Storytelling Sunday: Connected Memories

I woke up Friday already exhausted.  It was going to be a very long day at the end of a very long week. I couldn't remember the last time I had a chance to stop and breathe and relax, to sit quietly and just be. I had to skip my Thursday morning workout because I was drowning in work  assignment, family commitments and (most of all) volunteer work for my son's soccer team. I had driven the team to a soccer game on Thursday night, not getting home until after 10:00 p.m. And, on Friday morning, I rolled out of bed early because the soccer team had agreed to run a snack bar at a huge wrestling tournament hosted by the high school. I was in charge of opening the snack bar and overseeing it from 7:45 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and then returning to oversee the closing shift from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. I had arranged for a delivery of tamales to sell at the snack bar, and at mid-morning, the tamale man arrived.  
They smelled delicious - warm and savory and like my Grandmother's kitchen. I grabbed a couple of tamales and sat down in the sunshine to enjoy the taste of memory, mixed with chicken and masa and chili. And in that moment, so many memories came flooding back. Of the time I made tamales with my Abuelita in her kitchen in Texas. Of the many trips with my mom to neighborhood kitchens to pick up tamales for Christmas. Of sitting and sipping tequila with my father over a steaming plate of tamales on Christmas morning. 
For me, tamales are inextricably bound up with Christmas memories and my Latino heritage. They connect me with my childhood and with the generations who have come before me. And, since my son's soccer team is almost entirely Latino, they also connect me with my present and my future. I took a deep breath, finished my tamales and returned to the snack bar. Thoughts of my past and my future swirling through my head. 
At the end of the day, after my closing shift, I bought a dozen tamales, and passed them out to the students who had helped during the day and others I met as I walked across campus. Every person who took one smiled in anticipation, as if I had given them a gift.  
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This story is offered as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday and is inspired by her Christmas Club storytelling project. The photograph above features a fork from my grandmother's silver plate table setting and a lace doily which she made. For more stories, go to this link.