I’m taking a me day, so that means vegging on the sofa under a blanket, watching tv and playing on my laptop! A song came on and I was taken back to a much simpler time as a teenager; hanging out at the beach staring at the adorable lifeguard while that song played on the radio!
I can’t remember at times what someone told me a couple of days ago, but a song, tv rerun, a facial expression from one my grandkids, takes me back to a specific time or place from up to 65 years ago. These events usually bring a smile to my face, although there are a few that make me sad.
What do you hear or see that takes you back in time?
My parents had a large record collection, mostly 45s from the 1960s and 70s. Even though I was really into Top 40 music as a teen (Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson & Whitney Houston), it’s my parent’s music collection that takes me back. Songs that immediately come to mind are Beatles’ Here, There and Everywhere, Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour, and Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice.
Manilow just announced a Nashville concert. I dare anyone 50+ to tell me they are not a Fanilow. It’s a lie if you say so
I told the better half - get tix.
It was on all the time when I was young - dad, sister, etc.
Sure, I’ll be the only male, the only person under 70 - but how fun it will be.
The other year, the wife wouldn’t go, so I saw Frankie Valli at the Grand Ole Opry. His lips barely moved, he sings clear but can’t talk clear (probably because he’s not singing) - but damn - he’s Frankie Valli.
So those kind of things take me back in time to when I was a kid.
I am def not a Manilow fan, never was. No offense to him or anyone that is! I have a friend who is what ever they call a super fan of him. (Fanilow)
Music for sure. Sometimes food.
Several Earth Wind and Fire songs bring me back to hanging out in the lobby of my freshman dorm playing foosball.
A daiquiri brings me back to the bar my brother and his wife took me to for my 18th bday (I’m one of the ones in Michigan who could drink for a year and then whoops! - the state changed it to 21 and could no longer drink legally!)
Cream of Wheat = breakfast in the winter growing up and a Moroccan honey cake my mom would make with it as a special treat for us.
Adding to @thumper1’s list: Seals and Crofts (We May Never Pass this Way Again was our senior class song), America, Eagles, Hall & Oates, Loggins and Messina, Chicago, early Billy Joel and, of course, anything Bee Gees (just the thought of Barry Gibb makes me swoon today). Loved Beach Boys and Frankie Valli, too.
Never a Manilow fan.
Like @abasket, there was a very short window for me where I was an illegal drinker, but I was in Ann Arbor by then where it didn’t matter (and marijuana was just a $5 fine).
Smells take me back, too. Charlie, Sweet Honesty, and Windsong put me right back in high school as does the scent of Herbal Essence shampoo (the original harsh green stuff).
Whenever I see the “new” Herbal Essence commercial, I am that teen in the shower washing my hair. I have actually thought about opening a bottle at the store to see if it smells the same, but assume it doesn’t.
Jergens Cherry Almond is another scent that takes me to high school.
My Three Dog Night 8 track, that played in the background at my party, will always be a favorite. Lets just say my neighbor’s friend, who I might have had a major crush on, paid attention to me!
Honestly, no one specific thing or music - my nostalgic memories don’t carry me way back. Certain moments during Seders when I remember my dad leading them, or hearing the Michigan fight song takes me to college days, maybe.
Music triggers so many memories for me. The songs others have referenced definitely take me back & remind me of where I was or how I was feeling back in the day. It’s not just popular songs that spark the memories for me, though. I played viola - when I hear Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, I flash back to playing that song in youth orchestra. It was the first time I felt the power of being in the middle of a group of people on different instruments playing different parts, coming together to make the most amazing sound. I still feel the chills like it was yesterday.
Wow - Just reading Sweet Honesty took me back :). I had a bear candle that I am pretty sure was sweet honesty, and I carried that candle through life with me for a very long time.
Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge takes me back to my childhood and then visiting family and traveling there for work in my younger days. It’s always a feel good moment for me.
I grew up at MSU so both their and U of M’s fight songs and alma maters. I kind of liked Michigan’s varsity fight song best…Varsity, down the field, never yield, raise high our shield…
Son’s elementary school used the Michigan fight song tune for their own school song. So I spent six years trying not to sing the wrong words.
The U2 Joshua Tree album - instantly brings me back to the week at the beach after my junior year in college, when I realized I was a disaster as a pre-med major and I needed to make a pivot, because if it was that hard and that not fun, why the hell was I pursuing it as a potential career? I listened to my tape over and over while looking out over the ocean trying to figure out what was next in my life and how I could salvage it.
(End of story - was surprisingly easy to salvage. Just by taking classes that were “fun” or that were interesting for gen eds, I had nearly completed the course work to be a public policy major. I literally only had to take one additional class.)
The beginning riff to the song, “Urgent,” by Foreigner instantly transports me to dances in the school gym my senior year of high school.
“Tequila Sunrise,” takes me back to my 8th grade crush (that lasted all the way through high school).
I have a strong memory of how mother smelled when she would come in to kiss me goodnight when I was a little girl (after I was already asleep) after having been to a party. I’d barely rouse, but I very much remember it; a combo of booze, faint cigarette smoke, and Chanel #5
