Friday 31 July 2009

Associations

Do you ever get those sudden memory flashes that aren't really related to a specific memory, but to a time or a place in your life?


I so often smell something, hear a certain sound or even see a shape or colour that transports me somewhere or sometime else. For example, if I hear the sound of the icecream van with its tinkly music driving through the suburbs, I am taken back to when my brother and I (aged about five and nine respectively) would beg my mom for money, jump on our bikes and cycle madly through our neighbourhood, stopping occasionally to try and hear which direction the tinkle was coming from.


Or if I smell ceylon tea, my memory is of sitting with my grandparents on their bed, early in the morning when I was very young on my first away-from-home-on-my-own trip to them. They would make tea at about 6am every morning before they got ready for the day and I would cuddle with them on their creaky old bed, surrounded my huge floral-patterned pillow, carefully sipping my weak, sweet tea out of a proper china teacup, which made me feel very grown up. My gran has been gone for almost 15 years now, but it's still one of my strongest memories of her.


There are other associations I have that I can't explain very well. A certain rich afternoon light always reminds me of my exchange in Melbourne, Australia, when I was in high school, and I'm not sure why that is.


Sometimes the slightest things that I don't even really notice consciously will give me what I call the "holiday feeling". Do you know the one? When you feel all excited with butterflies in your tummy, as though you are in some exotic foreign place on an adventure, but for no real reason?


I'm trying so hard to pin this down and make it make sense to myself (and perhaps you), but it's so difficult to explain. This morning, for instance, I was looking through my LOLcat newsletter (always a good way to start the day) and I saw this photo:


And all of a sudden a memory of our family trip to Bosnia came to me and I felt exactly how I felt on that day, yet I can't explain what it was in the photo that spoke to that memory. Perhaps the building in the background reminded my subconscious of something there? I'm not sure, but it had nothing to do with the cats - the subject of the photo.


*Sigh* I'm very up in the air in my posts at the moment. Sorry. Exploring the inside of my head a bit, I guess. It's sometimes more interesting in there than out in the real world of writing press releases and filling in tax forms.

Have a good weekend, y'all. I plan to ;-)

14 comments:

boldly benny said...

Holy crap you went to Bosnia - tell us about THAT!

po said...

Yeah I agree, your family went to Bosnia, that must have been very interesting. Tell!

MarkP said...

Hey Loopy !! - Good to hear you have a nice little white jacket too !!! LOL

I get reminded of Ice Cream all the time, as Mrs Maxx's Mum & Dad have their own Ice Cream business. And Ceylon tea is my favourite. I don't do disguting earl grey or anything like that. What's that ?? Do I have Lapsang souchong ?? No no no....I just have my underpants on the wrong way round....

Slyde said...

yeah really.. bosnia? wow.

but im the same way. sometimes what i see can instantly transport me to another time...

Laura said...

I get this feeling TOTALLY!!

I get "transported" places all time. Everything seems to have a memory or is a reminder :)

And that butterflies in the tummy feeling - AWESOME feeling especially when you cant place it :)

Damaria Senne said...

Then there are smells that make me very happy, but the memory of why eludes me. For me it's the smell of soil, just before the rain begins, or when I water my garden. I try to bring that memory closer when I work in my garden, but it's not exact.

Susan said...

There is a fresh, smell, sun-warming-the porch- smell that I run into from time to time and it zaps me back to my childhood home faster than any photo every could.

Anonymous said...

I can completely relate weirdly though I can literally go back there and sort of run through what I did and feel what I felt that day and recall the weirdest of details. But I've always been kind of a sensory person, dedicated to enjoying certain feelings and emersing myself in the experience. I think I was always was a writer/actress.
Bosnia? I've only heard of the name... So now you have to tell. Or at least point it out on the map for me.

Vodka Mom said...

i loved this post. The smell of freshly baked sour dough bread takes me back to my mother's kitchen...it was a wonderful place to be......

Anonymous said...

I SO KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!!

Just tonight some scene in Cinderella Man reminded me of when we were little...and I actually spent a few minutes pondering the memory.

I also want to hear about Bosnia. :)

Tamara said...

Benny: Ok. Will do. Let me see if I can find some pics first.

Po: It was. I will ;-)

MarkP: No fair! I can't access your blog :-(

Slyde: Yep. Details to follow, due to popular demand.

Laura: Ja... I love the holiday feeling. But not as much as I love holidays!

Damaria: I get you on that. I think the garden and nature smells touch us at some basic soul level and take us back to the root of things.

Susan: I love how you wrote that. I can almost smell it myself now.

Paula: Me too - I need to touch, taste, smell, see and hear things. Our senses are such a blessing and I'm determined to maximise on them ;-)

Vodka Mom: Oooohhh... sour dough bread is the best thing in the world. What a lovely memory to have!

Sleepyjane: Good to hear! Which bit in Cinderella Man? and yes, I will tell about Bosnia, although I fear it won't be as interesting as everyone thinks it will!

ExMi said...

the smell of candy floss reminds me of my mother.

whenever i went to movies with my friends she insisted i bring her back a bag of candy floss!

:)

MarkP said...

I think you need a WP account to view my blog, cos it's locked. If you have a WP username, let me know, and I'll add you up...

AngelConradie said...

Its amazing what strange things your subconscious can bring to the fore when you smell or hear or see something!