Music and Memories

It is funny how it can stop you in your tracks. You are going about your day, doing your thing and all of a sudden a song comes on the radio and it takes you back.

Now it can be a good memory or a bad one. And the funny thing is you can hear that song 100 times before that day and it does not trigger the memory and then, BAM! You are blindsided by a song. Now, I know smells can do the same thing. The smell of popped corn, a roast in the oven, heck even certain cleaning agents will trigger memories for me. But music seems to bring back the strongest memories for me.

Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle brings back memories of my mom holding me and swaying to the music and singing softly.

Guns and Roses Sweet Child of Mine triggers memories of playing pool in a hole in the whole bar somewhere is North west Illinois with Bobby. Which brings back other memories of Bobby...not any of which are good. But the one was. It was a happy time and I thought it was "real". Boy was I wrong.

Just about anything from the Cars brings back memories of lying in the back of my truck in the early spring when the weather is starting to get warm but the air is still crisp at night and the bugs are few. Looking up at the stars and wondering where I was going in life. Yeah, not so sure where I was going but at that time I knew it was better than where I had been. And I was right.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper still makes me laugh. Sandy, Holly and I went out for a girls night out and wound up at a bar on rte 72. I think we were the only women in there. Here we were, the 3 of us, On married lady, one just divorced and one slightly pregnant and showing...but we got all of the attention. It was a total moral boost for all of us. They played whatever we wanted on the juke box, They made sure we had drinks all the time...no mind you not one of us was drinking anything harder than colas that night. We were the queens that night and we milked it for all it was worth. And now every time I hear the song I have to laugh to myself. And I still like having that song as a ring tone for my girlfriends.

The mind is a funny thing. Coming up with the most obscure things...distant memories pop into the mind when you least expect them to while listening to the radio. It is amazing how that happens. Music is a powerful tool and it proves it in the most unexpected moments.