By now, most of us have settled into the new year, and it seems good to have normal weeks with no holidays to mess up our schedules. We date our checks with the correct year and put out the trash the night before it is collected, and hopefully remember to put 34 cents on a letter, complying with the new rate schedule. I’m no friend of the postal service since they remodeled the eagle symbol and modernized it. The new image looks more like a clothespin and I miss the old and much more real eagle symbol. The service spends millions of dollars on advertising and then raises the rate to help pay for it. With all my grumbling, I must add that we have an excellent carrier on our route!

Monday morning sunshine has faded and it looks like some kind of a storm will arrive momentarily. Hot water would be fine. ­The leftover snow is dirty and although the children would welcome some new white stuff, those who must clean up the roads and clear the pathways are hoping it might be just normal rain.

It is an accepted fact that we have certain associations of foods with events, activities to match certain days and times, and memories that hang around forever. I was in the Newtown Grand Union, shopping, when news of the assassination of President Kennedy came over the radio airwaves. We were in New York State visiting the late Mr and Mrs “Ma” and “Pa” Topps of Monroe at their retirement home, when man first set foot on the moon.

What do you think of when you hear mentioned “ribbon candy?” Or cherry pie in winter? Or fireworks? Or a woman singing “God Bless America?” Or the beautiful strains of a seasonal hymn resounding in a magnificent and far-away tabernacle?

Mention the bowl of warm applesauce sitting on the kitchen counter and your mind may match it to a slightly browned roast pork coming out of the oven. Talk about another bowl –­ homemade potato salad dotted with pieces of egg and sprinkle with a dusting of parsley – and your mind travels to a summer picnic in the backyard. Where does your mind go when you hear the church bells ringing at midnight?

The unmistakable scent of fresh and clean baby powder may send your thoughts in several directions. A flag of the United States blowing in the wind atop a flagpole could send your thoughts to many places – mine go always to the much loved view of the Newtown flagpole with is very beautiful “summer” flag in the center of town.

There are more personal memories that are called to mind immediately when you hear a certain song; come across lines of a poem in a book or magazine; hear the ad on TV as it plays “Itsey Bitsey Spider” or the old “Row, Row, Row your Boat.” A photograph of a beagle dog or a tiger tabby cat can take your thoughts to a well-loved cat or dog. It is association that awakens the memories and happenings of your life.

Sometimes when you are at a social event with friends and relatives, give each one a pad and pencil and allow twenty minutes for each one to write down three associations they call to mind. The answers, read aloud, will recall more and more special things which we hide away in our inner minds. They add to the richness or our lives, and are ready to take out and remember, wherever an association beckons.

The quote last week came to me by way of Phil Jones in a letter. It was from the writing of Charles Dudley Warner.

Who said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”?