Julie Memories

The quality of this photo is terrible, but I have always loved it.  It reminds me of living in Scotland – a time in my life when I have lots of wonderful memories.  This is me and my mom in the yard of the house we owned in Rosehearty, Scotland.

I dug this photo up because I just got an email with a ticket confirmation from my mom saying that she is going to join us for the part of our trip when we are in Scotland.  This totally floored me because I thought she wasn’t going to be able to make it!

I had been holding off on making any plans in Scotland even though all of the other sections of our trip have been booked for a while now.   I knew that it was not too likely that my mom could come, but making the hotel reservations seemed pretty final. And I really wanted my trip to Scotland to be about revisiting some parts of my childhood.

But, a trip without my mom would really not be about revisiting my childhood as much as just adding another country to our itinerary.    You see, I was only 7 when we moved away from Scotland, and while I have a lot of memories, they are pretty fuzzy.  And my family loves to laugh at me (and my memories from this time ) because I often get the facts mixed up.  It is to the point that my memories of Scotland (and some other parts of my childhood) are known as “Julie Memories.”  They would definitely not stand up in a court of law. 

If I am perfectly honest, I don’t know if the photo above was actually taken at the house I am thinking of in Scotland.  (But I have come to the realization that even if I have a “Julie Memory” it is more of a representation of the period in my life and how I felt at the time.  And for me, that photo is having fun in the back yard of that Scottish house with my mom.)

But now, maybe I can revive my memories and take claim back on the term, "Julie Memories.”  Maybe they won’t be synonymous with falsehoods, but just, “Julie’s memories.” (Yeah, I doubt it too.)

 

The photo below is of the house I am referring to.  It is hard to see, but I am standing at the very corner of the house.

And just because I came across this too, I thought I would throw it in.  This is a photo of my sister and brother in 1977 in Fraserburgh, Scotland.  Bobby is 5 in this photo, and Amy is 3 or 4.  I would love to see if we could find this little harbor and take a similar photo of Owen and Jack.  They will be 3 and 5 on this trip.