A memory can be brought to the forefront of your mind by a number of things: a sound, a voice, a person, a tree even. This memory for me was brought back by a smell.

Clean, cool, crisp, rain.That was the smell.

That brought my mom back to life. Rewound time to when I was a child. Plopped me 300 miles south. When my siblings were here every weekend. When my dad was happy.

To the campground.

Hearing the sound of soft rain on our little tent. The smell of the morning after the rain.

The feel of the lake water on my tiny legs. Almost drowning because I was trying to keep up with my brother. My mom floating by to save me.

Squishing my toes in the muck of the sand under the water. Feeling the seaweed and God knows what else.

Watching my mom float on a raft with my dad pulling her around. Having a whispered conversation, laughing and smiling. Like a young couple in love. Not a couple with 5 children and a bunch of adult problems with work and rent. Happy. Blissful.

I still remember the sunglassed smile on both my parents faces watching us play. What they didn't notice, was that I was watching them.

They always fought. For as long as I could remember. But not when we were on the campground. That campground turned them into different people. Happy. In love again.

I wish that I could always be on that campground. That we could have stayed a family. But life moves on.

And the campground is now a distant memory brought to life by the rain.