Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with memories

What is the recipe for these grandmother cookies?

Deathalicious — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:08:06 -0800

I'm looking for a recipe for a very specific cookie I ate as a youngster. They were made by the grandmother of someone at my Jewish summer camp, so it's possible that they're a traditional Jewish cookie, but I've never seen them since. We all called them __ Grandmother cookies, where __ was the name of the camper in question. They always arrived in an empty Quaker oats canister.

They are, basically, rings -- rolled up dough that's been sliced thin and baked as a cookie. They are rock hard and have a very faint cinnamon taste with a bit of nuttiness as well (it's amazing that I can still remember the taste from over 15 years ago).

I want to stress the rock hard element. They were nothing like the pastry-like rolled up cookies. I'm aware there are cookies like that and they always get me: I see a rolled up cookie like that, pop it in my mouth, and it instantly disappoints because they aren't the grandmother cookies.

So please, does anyone know this kind of cookie? Because I would love to know the recipe.

So, here are the key elements, best as I can remember them:

hard as a rock
cinnamon
very nutty flavor
relatively tiny -- maybe as wide around as a half dollar or silver dollar
the dough itself is very sweet (I know in many cases the sweetness comes from the filling between the layers; in this cookie, it does not)
Very clearly layered in the ring, which is to say it was very obviously rolled up and then baked, and in fact you could snap off pieces of the ring
addictive as crack

Tired of all the cliche's

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:39:13 -0800

Harry and I got married when I was 42. Ours was a rocky relationship at its worst and absolutely riveting at its best. Even today the passion we share and yes, even the fights we occasionally have are intense, but all the laughter, that is what kept us together. We are sharing our 25th wedding anniversary on our wedding day this December. We are writing vows and I wanted to know what are the little things in relationships that made you love someone the most? I feel like all the things I want to say are cliche I need inspiration. I don't want to disappoint him.

Suggestions for a Book of Memories?

aqsakal — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:42:57 -0800

Grateful for inspirational suggestions for a contribution to a "Book of Memories" for my brother's golden wedding anniversary. My elder brother celebrates his golden wedding in November, and his three super kids have organised the party. My wife and I will travel there for a long weekend. The kids specifically said "No gifts, but please provide a contribution to the Book of Memories we are compiling" (suggesting pictures or a text).
Trouble is, although I love my brother and sister-in-law dearly, we have virtually no shared memories. He worked abroad while I was growing up, then I worked abroad when he moved back to our home country; as a result, we've seen each other for perhaps a total of two weeks over the past 50 years. Despite long and cordial email correspondence (including a lot of very helpful financial advice on his part), it would be fair (but brutal) to say we hardly know each other. A 12-year age gap doesn't help. And as our parents were divorced, he was more of an uncle- or father-figure to me than the way I imagine most brothers are (that is, on an equal rather than a guide/pupil footing).
Can any kind MeFite help me overcome what is rapidly turning into paralysed panic as the party day nears?

A ladder left behind

Funmonkey1 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:55:24 -0800

[FearFilter]: 15 years ago I experienced an imminent death/serious injury moment that turned out ok. However, I still feel physical chills and tingly feelings even thinking about it. Am I the only one or is this common? Thoughts and stories appreciated. The science is a huge bonus. Short background. Many years ago some friends and I decided to put a ladder out the 3rd floor house in order to gain access to the roof.

I clearly recall the way back down the ladder and it is no mistake, balance was against me. That 1 second of fighting against of gravity while looking down is ingrained in my mind. The moment is etched forever in the brain and triggers immediate fear and physical response if I focus on it. WTF? After so long?

I can't be the only one that has such a memory that stirs such strong physical and emotion reaction. What is it called and how does one not be so jolted?

How to label pictures before putting into albums?

gtr — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:57:01 -0800

How do I label pictures I'm putting into albums? Our family has tons of pictures we'd like to eventually scan. They're in boxes now. First, we'd like to put them into albums for safe keeping. We'd like to label older pictures with people's names or the occasion.

But what type pen? Do they make pens for this? Or should we use labels?

Any help is greatly appreciated. We don't want to hurt in pictures in the long term.

I'm smarter only in my dreams. Literally.

raztaj — Sat, 09 May 2009 06:44:46 -0800

I just had a dream in which I could remember dates, names, and lyrics (correctly) that I could not recall in my waking life. Why can't I draw upon the same pool of stored information in my brain when I'm awake? Can I change this? The dream didn't involve a kind of memory-jeopardy, of naming and remembering things, but they were along the plot of my dream, in which I could remember various things that I couldn't remember when awake. Obviously this information did not go in one ear and out the other, but is being stored somewhere in the deep, dark, recesses of my brain.

Can I access this pool of stored knowledge? Or work at it in some way? Why do dreams so freely do this, recall such information as if there's nothing strange about it in the least? Am I forever doomed to be smarter only in my dreams??

Experiencing an emotional crisis. Should I contact this girl?

dadaluma — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:03:12 -0800

I need to get this off my chest. At the moment my emotional state is all out of whack. To the point that it is beginning to adversely affect my daily life. I cannot think as clearly as I used to since my mind is drifting. I keep experiencing daydream-like flashbacks of certain points in my childhood, all dealing with people I wish I was still around with. It's not like I completely stop whatever I'm doing and think about these things, but they are always in the back of my mind, like a subconscious memory that is stuck. Basically, I think memories of this one girl I knew way back when are bringing this on. Should I get in touch with her, despite the fact I now live thousands of miles away? Backstory: what might have been the onset of this? When I was still in high school as a senior at 17, my parents decided to move. At the time, I was excited. Back where I used to live, there were admittedly no opportunities for me. Since moving, I have started college and started up my own business in the technology field with hosting websites. I also work as a independent journo in the video game industry (going to E3 next month). Anyway, going through with this move meant I never was able to experience the last few months with high school friends before moving on to secondary education. Honestly though, I didn't care at the time, as I was never really emotionally attached to my surroundings.

But now, three years later, I'm feeling regrets, despite everything else in my life being on the up. At the core of it all is this girl I knew awhile back. I never knew her that well, guess you could say we were only casual friends. She was very carefree and had a super likable personality. I did sense a connection that I never had felt before between us but well, I never made a move. It's not exactly that I was shy or anything, just that getting a girlfriend back then was not top on my list of priorities. So yeah, I reckon I let the chance pass me by. Although I cannot say for certain if she really liked me or not, it sure feels like I blew it anyway.

So now, I am wondering if I should contact her again, just to chat as friends? Maybe just talking to her would fill this void in my life and stop the recurring memories. I really don't know. I'm only hesitant as I am short on words. By that I mean I have no idea what to say to her. And plus, having someone contacting you out of the blue that you only knew casually after three years seems sort of awkward.

I suppose... I may be experiencing these feelings as I'm at an age where I still can do something about it. Possibly, anyway. It's safe to say that wanting to get back to together with someone 10-20 years after the fact is not going to happen in most cases. In my case though it has been only three years. So perhaps that "chance," however minute it may be, is bringing this all on.

How do I make my travel memories better?

bodywithoutorgans — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:59:15 -0800

I want to know how to remember my future travels better. I look back at some old travel pictures and think it was all a dream. What do YOU do? My Central America adventures a few years ago include about 30 nondescript pictures in a pub (obviously inebriated), about 40 pictures of pyramids, and 20 pictures tagged "beach", "bus" and other stock photos easily obtainable through google images.

I have a handful of journal entries which in retrospect were begging to be elaborated.

I want to know how you make your past travel memories more vivid instead of discontinuous incidents such as disproportionate photos of mass inebriation in a bar.

I'm not really looking for setting up a blog and uploading a picture every day. I'm looking for creative suggestions like sketching landscapes with markers or something like that. Help me make the past not a big blur!!!

what to put in a newborn time capsule ?

Baud — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:36:23 -0800

My nephew/niece is due any minute now. I'm planning a "do not open until 2019" sealed box. Besides newspapers of the day and screenshots of a few websites and bearing in mind that I live in Belgium, what would you put in his/her time capsule ?

Looking at those youtube videos of people taking pictures of themselves every day for years, I find i want to do it too.... but HOW?

Javed_Ahamed — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:04:24 -0800

Looking at those youtube videos of people taking pictures of themselves every day for years, I find i want to do it too.... but HOW? So after looking at all these videos of people taking pictures of themselves everyday for years, such as here i am interested in doing the same thing so i have something to look at years from now. The only problem i have now is how to go about actually doing this. We have a canon dslr, which is really good but then i run into the problem of taking a picture of myself everyday in the same pose ideally so the background isnt moving around. I also have a 1.3MP webcam built into my laptop, and i run ubuntu so I was wondering if maybe getting a script to take a picture of myself everyday would work too (i wouldnt know how to write this). What are your ideas? Thanks!

Unwelcome flashbacks

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:10:58 -0800

My past experiences are coloring my perception of the present, my personal life is crashing into my professional life, help me make it stop. Things are changing for me at work. I'm moving to a position that's a much better fit for my skills and interests. I'm in academia, so things like this don't happen often. It's awesome, and I'm grateful.

However, it's causing some anxiety and hurt feelings in the area I'm leaving, particularly with my immediate supervisor, who, along with his wife and children, have been close personal friends of mine. I expected some of this reaction from him, mostly because from his perspective, the change came out of the blue, and he feels that more notice would have been better, particularly given our friendship. I'm willing to take responsibility for the choices I made in that regard.

The problem is this: his obvious and oft-stated disappointment/anger/hurt feelings are taking a form which is eerily evocative of behaviors and attitudes belonging to a long-ago (more than 10 years) ex who was often emotionally and occasionally physically abusive. This makes my reactions and emotions respond at a level completely out of whack with the actual situation. Yes, it's stressful and sad, but no, I don't need to find a place to hide, or pack a "just in case" bag to be ready to flee when he approaches.

Now I've started having dreams where I'm in unhappy past places and situations, but he's taking the place of my ex who was really there. I have to consciously remind myself at work that all he's done is yell and say some unkind things, that he hasn't actually, and wouldn't ever, hit me. This seems ridiculous. I'm starting to feel like a tv movie Vietnam vet, leaping behind couches when a car backfires outside.

He doesn't know about the ex, and now is not the time to tell him. (Before all this happened, I would have been perfectly comfortable telling him about it, there just wasn't ever any reason to. I've had therapy, moved past it, gotten support, had subsequent healthy relationships, so, it's just not something that tends to come up in everyday conversation.)

My question is, how do I deal in the short term, since we'll be sharing office space for at least a few weeks longer, what's the best way to cope should additional confrontations arise (again, this is academia, drama tends to run higher than it did in non-academic jobs I've had, so confrontation is decently likely), and, is there anything I can do in the long term to more or less "unlearn" this association between my ex and this guy so I can have some hope of rebuilding the friendship?

Thanks, AskMe. You've always handled my non-anonyme questions so well, I have high hopes you'll be able to help me fix this, too. If I've been unclear, email followup to HeIsNotMyEx@gmail.com.

The little people and the big old fashioned car?

planetthoughtful — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:36:06 -0800

Here we go with another one of those 'help me remember something from a bizarre series of random images' questions! When I was a kid (we're talking approx 1973 to 1978, with maybe a year or two on either side) i had a record that came with a storybook. From very vague memory, you listened to the record and you turned the pages of the book in time with a specific sound (though I could be wrong). Here's where the memories get very random (all of the following may or may not be true): the story involved tiny people, they lived in a forest, next to or near a house, children lived in the house (or were visiting the house), with an older man (a grandfather?), who had a big old-fashioned looking car. And that's about all I can remember. I have this very vague impression that the grandfather knew about the little people (by little, i'm talking maybe 4 to 6 inches tall). The accompanying book had illustrations. I think there were two human children, a boy and a girl, who were brother and sister. And I think at some point in the story the little people were in the car, but that could just be made of shadows and moonbeams.

Does anyone else remember this book / record?

What made your happy childhood memories happy?

onlyconnect — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:07:24 -0800

What happy memories do you have of being a young child that make you think either "those were good times" or "that was good parenting"? The younger you were at the time, the better. I can not remember too much from my young childhood, besides the warm feeling from sitting in a basket of laundry just come from the dryer, my dad teaching me how to ride a bike, and the days my mom would pick me up from grade school and we would eat and talk at Arthur Treacher's while we were waiting for my brothers to finish school. And I can remember one vacation with my family by the seashore when I was very young, when my grandmother showed me how to dig for clams, as well as a trip to Disneyland where we stayed in a loft with a circular staircase surrounded by orange trees. All of these memories leave me with happy, warm feelings about my childhood. I also remember playing with my brothers and reading in my room alot and other minor incidents, but these more mundane memories don't really carry the same emotional weight.

I would like to know if other people have more happy memories from their childhoods and, if so, what are they like? If your parents created loving memories for you, what sorts of things were you doing together? I guess I'm partly trying to understand why some things stick in our minds, to become happy memories, and others don't. As well as how to help create positive memories for a child. (Obviously, "be a good parent/aunt/sitter/friend" is the default answer, but beyond that, what makes the memory?)

ex girlfriend past memories nostalgia

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:10:58 -0800

When will I stop thinking about my ex? She's starting to pop up in my cavernous head again. I broke up with my first long term girlfriend in January of last year after a tortuous last few months. In the end I was glad it was over and didn't care if I heard another word about her again. I started seeing my current girlfirend about nine months ago. My current relationship is going well. The only complaint I have is a lack of sex and general affection that was present in the beginning. I don't want to complain too loudly because my girlfriend has been amazingly stressed lately. We have discussed it a couple times and I'm doing my best to be patient.

My current relationship is definitely more serious in tone than the one with my ex. We have tons of fun but the ex and I had a little goofball streak going. I'm not sure if it was the age difference though. My current girlfriend and I are 28 and my ex was 24.

For the past week or so my mind wanders back to my ex. I haven't really thought about her for about eight months give or take a little and all of a sudden it's like a big wave of what I can only describe as nostalgia hits. I haven't been able to figure out if I'm missing her or just the good parts of the relationship that I don't exactly have now. I can't help but feel a little guilty when my girlfriend and I are watching a movie and the ex pops into my head for a second or two.

Is this unusual? If it's not will this lessen over time?

Jogging memories. Ah, the feeling of tracksuit sliding betwixt my legs, the honking of angry drivers.

Ambrosia Voyeur — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:40:58 -0800

How do you jog your memory? I have a spotty memory. I saw this guy the other day, for example, and I remember that his name is Daniel and that I think he's nice and smart, but don't know where I know him from! I'm also pretty hopeless when I've lost something.

Are there tricks to jogging memories once something's been forgotten?

Chicken Feet!

albernathy0 — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:01:07 -0800

Please help identify a children's horror program either on television or VHS (most likely) that I watched as a child in the early 90s. If it was a television program I have a feeling that it would have been on PBS. I am most confident however that it was a VHS video I rented from the library. I associate the words, "Chicken Feet" with what I remember. The scene I remember best is of a children's room, outside is rain and lightning, and suddenly you see this big monster chicken in the closet! That's really all I recall. The movie was live action. Thank you so much for the help!

Choke daddy?

seanmpuckett — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:04:26 -0800

In a poor Dade county Florida elementary school in the late 70s, on some days they would serve us "Choke Daddy" sandwiches instead of hot food. What was that stuff? I think it was 1977, and the school was Goulds Elementary. Choke daddy sandwiches (I don't think that was their official name) were a blob of sweet, sticky brownish goo between two slices of cheap white bread. I'm guessing they had to stretch their budget by serving these things occasionally. I don't remember the flavor much except that it was sweet, and fairly smooth textured. I think if I tried to recreate it today, I'd try combinations of peanut butter, corn syrup, white sugar and/or molasses. Yeah, seriously. They had to feed us something.

Anyone remember anything similar, and if so, any real information on what it was?

A Father's Time Capsule to his Daughter

jonson — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:49:00 -0800

What should I put in a time capsule for my daughter? I'm increasingly obsessed with how time keeps moving faster as I get older, and with my daughter's 2nd birthday approaching at the end of this year, I thought it would be fun to bury a time capsule in our yard for her, to open in 2026, on her 21st birthday. I have all of the sentimental items, (for example, a letter I wrote her when I found out my wife was pregnant), but I really want her to get a feel not just for who her parents were when they were (semi)young & (semi)cool, but what life was like in America when she was too little to take notice of it. For reference, similar items the from same time in my own childhood would have included, for example, the original Washington Post Watergate scandal reporting or an 8 track tape of Led Zep IV. So what things should I consider that will help commemorate the times?

The Most Exciting Library

tmcw — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:34:33 -0800

ChildhoodMemoryFilter... I keep remembering a Laserdisc movie from way back that included a library, the dewey decimal system, and a force field... I can't remember much more, but I think it was the last library on earth or something of that sort, and it had a spherical force field around it, as well as something underground. I was absolutely taken by whatever this educational film was, but I can't find it even with the most fervent Googling. Any ideas? This is an educational film, almost definitely on LaserDisc, played in New Jersey around 1991? to teach kids about libraries.

If & how to leave things to friends in your will?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:24:45 -0800

I am rewriting my will. I would love some advice on whether and/or how to "leave things" to (close) friends. Small things such as:
- A rare CD by an artist we both love.
- A particular book I know they've always coveted.
- Some soft toy that has some meaning between us.

Entirely personal / subjective / anecdotal advice is fine or even preferred.
Have you been the recipient of something like this? How did it make you feel? 2 weeks later, 2 months later, 2 years later?
If you haven't, how do you think you would feel? Moved? Sad? Disturbed?
(NB I have family members who'd execute my wishes so I needn't be concerned about the practicalities. but if you think it's still not worth the hassle then I want to hear that too)

PS. This is anonymous because some of my friends read AskMe. Which could be awkward, esp. if they end up not being one of the recipients.

Record of my life (well, just one year)

arcticwoman — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:46:00 -0800

Help putting together an online record of my year as an exchange student. Specifically, my questions inside deal with: what media (blog, wiki, lj, flickr, website?) how to deal with different materials (diary, emails, photos, memories) and a legal question regarding the association that sent me. In 2000/2001 I was a long-term youth exchange student to Malaysia with a particular service organization. I was thinking about my year abroad and realized that if I don't do something now to preserve and organize my memories they will be lost. My diary has already suffered some water damage and parts of it are unreadable, and years of shuffling around has meant that my photos are all out of order and some have disappeared. So I want to get everything together in a virtual format that will withstand physical damage and will make it easy for me to search particular events/photos. Also important is that it is in a form that I can share with my family and friends.

I have: a damaged diary
a few old livejournal posts
emails that I sent to my mother and her replies
photos
pamphlets
postcards
cookbooks/loose recipes
other scraps (from conferences, movie tickets, song lyrics/)

What can I do with all this? How can I organize it all online in a coherent order?

Finally, my legal-ish question: I didn't actually have a good year abroad and I have a lot of negative feelings and opinions about the organization that sent me. Do I need to hide the name of this organization under a pseudonym, or can I be candid? Not all of my opinions on this group are bad, and it is possible that in a few years I may even try to join. Is writing about how they let me down going to be problematic?

Remembering myself

unSane — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:29:03 -0800

What would a child adopted from a foreign country at the age of five, and brought up as a Westerner, remember of their infancy, and mother tongue? Let's say that until you were five, you lived in Russia and spoke Russian. When you were five, your parents died and you were taken to America, where you grew up in a series of foster homes, speaking English exclusively, and were never told of your background.

Now you're an adult in your twenties. What do you remember of your parents, if anything? Of the plane ride? What happens when someone speaks Russian? Do you understand? Can you converse? Basically, is it possible you could simply *not know* about your background?

Personal anecdotes very welcome. As you might imagine I am trying to work out the rules for a piece of fiction.

here I dreamt I was an architect

metabrilliant — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:08:50 -0800

What would you leave behind in your home for succeeding residents? What do you wish someone else had left for you? When my father and his siblings sold my grandparents' house a few years ago (after they had lived there for fifty years), they left behind several things that they thought the new owners might wish to have: blueprints of the house, old maps and guidebooks to the town, etc. Nothing terribly personal, as they never met the family moving in. I thought this was a really nice idea worth adopting. I've always been the kind of kid who likes to go around exploring all the nooks and crannies of wherever it is I inhabit. Discovering old things people leave behind is a thrill. Anything from old maps and photos to time capsules and secret caches.

So, have ever you ever left something behind for someone you didn't know (whether openly or in secret)? What, if anything, has been left in the places that you've lived? What do you think you'd like to find in a new house?

Also, what other sorts of things can you think of to leave behind? Standard time capsule things such as newspaper clippings are good, but bonus points for more creative suggestions. Artistic photos? Scrapbooks?

Scanning pictues at what dpi?

gtr — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:37:23 -0800

I've decided to collect and scan all my family's photographs. It's going to be a big project. The picture quality varies. Right now, I just want to get them all scanned, digital, and backed up. What dpi should I be scanning at? I don't want to go through all that work and then realize I've made a mistake.

I've tried to research it and have come up with 300dpi. Is that a good number, balancing quality and image size?

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December"

iurodivii — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:53:47 -0800

Please describe to me your most interesting idea for a method of documenting a road trip. The wifey, our two pups and myself are taking an extended car trip (starting in Florida, hanging a right at San Diego, again at Vancouver, once more somewhere in Maine, and then wintering in Tennessee).
I am looking for suggestions of meaningful, creative, and fun-to-revisit ways to document our 3 month journey. Mediums might include, but are not limited to: photos, written journals, recorded spoken word, video, collecting a particular thing from each stop, etc.