Mrs Tooley

One of the wonderful things about Facebook and the social networking revolution is how it reconnects with people from your past. And by doing so, you are also reconnected with the memories of you that that person has carried around and you most likely have long forgotten. This happened to me recently. A girl I knew from school and growing up in Ohio contacted me and sent me a lovely note. She recalled our first-grade classroom with Mrs Tooley. I immediately thought of apples because Mrs Tooley lived on my street and always passed out shiny red delicious apples on Halloween.

Anyway, my friend recounted a memory of how a smooth-talking little boy (who grew up to be quite the ladies man) had asked for her phone number and that she, being 5 or 6 years old had no idea what he had wanted it for. Apparently, she told me about it. Later when she told me that he had called her my little 6 year old self reached out my arms to her and exclaimed sweetly "Oh, he's so wonderful!"

Now I don't remember this at all. But I love the idea that it happened and that she had remembered it 40 years later. How many other piece-part memories of me are people walking around with out there? What would it be like if I could sew them all together in the collective gauze of the universe? What would I see?