This blog post was inspired by my best friend, Vicky, so thanks for the idea. 🙂 She said I should write about the correlation between music and memories. I am going to add one more thing to this, and talk about smells and memories, too.

It’s been said that smell is the sense most directly related to memories, and I definitely agree with that. How often do we walk by someone wearing a familiar cologne or perfume, and our brain automatically makes us think of the person we know that wears it. That response can be gut-wrenching, if it’s someone we’ve lost; sickening, if it’s someone we don’t want to think about; or exciting, if it reminds us of someone we love. And even if it’s just for a brief moment, our nose and brain can bring up that memory in an instant.

Music does the same thing for many of us. When I hear Earth, Wind, and Fire it will always remind me of driving with my dad when I was little, because he always played the cassettes in the car. An *Nsync song will take me back to the good old years of middle school and even high school, when crushing on a guy and getting our braces off were our biggest obstacles.

Many songs remind me of college, or more so, the people I met. I can see my roommate dancing around the room when I hear Bette Davis Eyes, or be brought back to girl’s nights with the best friends I’ve ever had when I hear Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

It’s almost amazing how much a song or a smell can mean to us. When we get married, we have “a song.” Maybe we should have “a smell,” too. My husband and I went to Atlantic City for our honeymoon and we go there as often as we can every year, and the smell that we both LOVE, the smell that reminds us of AC and our honeymoon and that special time, is the smell of Carmine’s restaurant in the Tropicana (our favorite casino and place to stay).

I don’t know if it’s a mixture of cheese and sauce, or dressing, but anytime a smell comes along that reminds me of that place, I am suddenly happy.

So smell your favorite flower, or burn your best candle. Put on some music that takes you back to a great memory. I think today, I’ll share with you my husband and I’s wedding song. Now, I’ll be smiling the rest of the day. What is your smell? Your song?