Triggers of memory

I listened to some music of the fifties and sixties last night, and it brought back many wonderful memories of hops, high school dances, summer and puppy loves and fun times with friends.

I tried to remember if my parents talked about the music they listened too in the late twenties, thirties, and forties. Performers like Guy Lombardo, Cab Calloway, The Mills Brothers, Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby and the profound Ella Fitzgerald. I couldn't recall, but I know they did.

Music is the great remember-er of happy times or sad times of lost loves or just of younger times, especially when one is older and listens, by chance, to a song that invokes an emotion long gone in the mind, but lifted to the surface with a knowing smile.

Recently, I cooked some fresh green beans, and I tasted one raw before it when into the pot. The flavor brought back memories of holiday dinners and the goodies on the kitchen counter.

Music, tastes, and aromas are the sensory sentiments of memories. Sometimes the fragrance of a Pot Roast cooking in the oven will take me back to childhood. The old dusty smell of a long used stage will bring me to plays and performances I saw or performed in as an adolescent and even the sight of an old RCA ribbon microphone will conger past jobs and former colleagues .

The sound of a trickling and gurgling mountain creek moves me to atavistic memories of lazy days fishing and hiking; even the occasional aroma of pipe smoke will remind me of my Dad.

I suspect that many of us often hear the distant divine din of the universe when we take the time to let go of all the holding thoughts that keep us from knowing who we are.