Monday, January 18, 2010

Sentimental Journey & Other Memories

“…gonna take a sentimental journey…” Where did I put that next record? … “gonna set my heart at ease…” Oh, here it is. “gonna make a sentimental journey…” I better cue this up before the song ends … “to renew old memories…” Hmmm, I think the second cut is a pretty good one; wonder when the network news starts? “Got my bags…”

It starts in THREE SECONDS! [kill the record]
“W-A-L-E, Fall River.” (beep) “Mutual News, John Anderson reporting…”

That was the closest I ever came to blowing a network join. How do I remember it? That it was 9:30 on a Saturday night? Because hearing “Sentimental Journey” brings it all back. “Gotta take that sentimental journey, sentimental journey home.”

On an unrelated note, there’s my grandfather’s ashtray. He would knock the remains out of his pipe on the protruding center stick and the tray would vibrate with a particular sound. Anytime I heard that sound, when we had that in our house years later, I thought of him and the house where he lived. Automatically.

Some years back, I lived in an apartment with steam heat. When my mother visited, she smelled it and said it brought her right back to a place she had lived in some thirty years earlier. Smell is a primitive sense and an equally primitive reminder.

Ever wonder what sounds, smells and experiences bring you back?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well here is mine...The Sound of Silence

The Observings and Thinkings of a Coffee-Ladened Twisted Mind.

It must been about 5:30 a.m. and here I am at N 49°00 – 849 ‘, W 070° – 017’’ at an altitude of 532 meters, a huge cup of very hot Alta Pluma Mexcican coffee and the sound came to me. The sound of hearing the silence. Most folks have never really savoured the moment or minutes of hearing the lack of sound. I just have. I have experienced the complete euphoria of hearing the impossible, and it was a very, well almost, transcendental lapse of time. ( I sure hope that it is the right word, transcendental).

It is incredible to be seated here, with a fresh-brew as a friend outside the camp and live the aura of the pre-dawn mist on the lake and the lack of noise…..Well, I spoke too quickly. Across the lake somewhere, a loon has awakened. Loons will do that, they will let you know when the sun will come up and when it will go down. How strong is the loon’s reveille? It echoes! But to me that is all right as they are not only acceptable but attractive sounds, so they fit in well with my present state of mind.

Along comes now, the scenario of life on the lake. A late August mist or vapour rises from the lake in which the water temperature is warmer than that of the air. The sun will take care of that matter in a short while. Oh? A beaver? Huh. Trout rising for breakfast, leaving ‘rounds’ on the calmest of the already calm lake. These factors make no noise, leaving their story to early morning coffee drinkers and observers.

Exit 318

January 22, 2010 12:36 PM  

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