Nostalgia?

A Microstory

You know that feeling when a song comes on the radio that you haven’t heard in years? That happened to me the other day, when a hit from yesteryear played early in the morning, just as the sun was peeping over the horizon. I’d been up earlier than usual and I was feeling that kind of drunk you get when you’re a little more tired than usual, even if you’re wide awake. Of course, there’s nothing noteworthy about an old song coming on the radio, particularly if you listen the station I do, but this time was different. The moment the opening chords came over the airwaves, I was transported. It won’t surprise you to learn that I was taken to a different time. I could only have been 5 years old. Perhaps that’s the last time I heard this song. I certainly don’t remember being taken on this journey before. Whether that’s the case or not, this time around, I was suddenly surrounded by my early childhood environment: the chintzy, brown and yellow wallpaper; the smell of cigarette smoke permeating the green velvet furniture; the incongruous and ornate, bas-relief ceiling rose above; all of it. At first, I wasn’t sure why this tune brought back such clear memories. Then it really did all come flooding back. I don’t know now, having remembered it with such clarity, whether I’m pleased or not. It’s good to be able to refer to the past, even in cases like this; but I know that, now this memory has resurfaced, I will never be able to erase it from my mind. Whatever, my life will never be the same again.