Total Recall

A few years ago my husband and I were seduced by a Time Life infomercial into buying the Time Life Music CD set, "Singers and Songwriters of the 70's." Our friends and family laughed at us for buying what they thought was a horrendous compilation of cringe-inducing sap but for us it was a happy stroll through our childhood memories. We spent an entire summer listening to those 10 CDs, trading I remember when's... and This reminds me of's...

Music is a unique conduit that way. I can listen to "Afternoon Delight" (a truly hideous song if ever there was one) and suddenly remember exactly what it was like to pile into the car with my parents and travel up to our garden in Rockton. Or I can listen to "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers and remember the day my best friend Eric and I used his picnic table as a stage while we pretended to be rock stars in his backyard. These are not important memories and I would not normally have cause to reference them but listening to the music brings everything back in a visceral rush.

Anyway, I thought of this today as the BOB station randomly played Eagle Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" on my way home from the grocery store and my brain spontaneously accessed a series of silly T2C memories.