inspired by this thread about scent-triggered memories.
Everyone’s got memories and memory triggers that make perfect sense. Things like smelling pine and remembering Christmas and knowing exactly why that connection exists.
This is about totally illogical memory triggers. The ones that don’t add up.
For example:
my first year of college (this past year) passed by in a total fog. I don’t truly remember it. It’s like a dream, where you can sometimes remember bits of it but you’re sure there’s more. I can tell you things that happened, but it’s like reciting stories out of a book. Certain things trigger memories now- almost flashbacks.
The biggest one is the song “Winter” by Tori Amos. My younger sister sent me the MP3 of it around February and I listened to it all the time because I had left all my CDs at home.
Now, when I hear that song, I remember Christmas. I remember walking to stores to pick out gifts (mostly walking down the hill to the fabric store or drinking hot tea in the bookstore) and walking to dance class and English class. I remember the reception after the dance concert where there were Christmas lights and cookies and somebody I didn’t know gave me a rose. I remember my dance teacher hugging me and crying in the costume shop.
this makes no sense. Before February, I hade never heard the song. even after I had, I still have never put it on a CD, so I never listened to it while I was walking.
Still, every time I listen to that song, it’s Christmas again.
so what are yours? what connections just don’t connect?