Friday's Tangent: Memory wispers in your ear when you least expect it

Smell. Sight. Sound.

I think that we can all agree that scent is a very powerful memory jogger. When I was younger my mother used to wear this Oil of Olay face lotion, and to this day if I smell it on someone else a smile breaks out over my face.

The very specific memory recall I'm talking about here is those you've tried to forget. Hopefully if you are trying to forget about someone you aren't close enough to smell them. For some reason cars bring on an intense association for me.

Music also literally transports me back in time. I'm one of those people who listens to an album or a song obsessively until I basically can't stand it any more, and in doing so I associate certain albums with certain times of my life. Including certain people. Albums from, for example, 1990, 1994, summer 2002 and fall 2002 , 2006 etc remind me of a distinctly different points in my life, especially since I tend to use music therapeutically. While songs can remind me of dear friends (SD, PS, SM, CE) it tends to be the only relic of past relationships I can't quite shake. Jewlery - you can get rid of. Phone numbers and old text messages can be deleted. If need be, one can even resort to un-friending. But the radio sometimes crawls up and bites you.

Here's to making new memories. Even if you have to keep at it.