Do you ever have old memories sneak up on you?
 

A little while ago I was sitting outside and watching the rain when I realized I was humming the theme to Phantom of the Opera. I thought it was odd that I could remember the song, and then I was hit by a flood of memories.

Last year, I had an internship up at Stony Brook University on Long Island. When my girlfriend at the time flew up to visit me, I spent most of the money that I had earned to do something special for her.

We got all dressed up and I took her into the city for dinner and a play. We ate dinner at Jean Georges, and it was the best 340 dollars I have ever spent (she felt like a princess, and the food was good too). After dinner, I took her to see Phantom of the Opera. For some reason, I was able to get front row seats, dead center stage (and got a student discount too).

Front row seats are not normally that good, but for Phantom of the Opera, they were great. The chandelier swung so close above us that I could have touched it. My girlfriend was also a musician, and loved being able to look down and watch the orchestra play. The play was spectacular, better than any movie that I have ever seen. I was totally captivated.

I knew my girlfriend had always dreamed of seeing the Phantom of the Opera on broadway, but I didn't realize how important it was to her until afterwards. It turned out that she had the sound track on tape, but had never listened to the second side for frear of spoiling the ending. She cried for probably ten minutes after the play was over (even though she was all smiles), and she fell asleep in my arms on the ride home.

.....

I have a new girlfriend now, with whom I have fallen in love. If someone came up and asked me to hum the theme to the Phantom of the Opera, I probably wouldn't remember how it went.

But when I noticed myself humming I was overcome by a flood of memories that were so powerfull I could remember all the smells, textures, sights, sounds and feelings of that evening. From the smell of the flowers at dinner to the screeching of the subway. For a few moments I was completely immersed in my own nostalgia. Eventually the vividness faded, and as I sat reminiscing, I thought I should post about it before I forgot about that day all over again.

Have you guys ever had a similar experience?

Yes. Usually they aren't good memories.

Its some sort of deja-vu.

I'm often surprised that I find my memory triggered by the most subtle things. Like the smell in the air. Like seeing an old car.

Most times though, I'm not able to trace where the memories were triggered from. I'm glad that you were able to do this, it makes the experience more powerful.

Here's a tip that I try to do after each time I find myself thinking about the past - I think about how far I have come since then. Think about your furniture then, your clothes, outlook, etc. I think you will find that you will trigger alot of other different memories.

: )

I have a very bad memory. I can't remember stuff in the past. I have friends say stuff do you remeber when we did this or that. I have to say no. This year is a family reunion, and one of my cousins thought it would be great to write down memories of Grandma. I can't think of any. I had to ask my sister what I should write about. She remined me we used to play couple of cards game down there. So i decide to do that. I only have two sentences. I'm going to look like a complete asshole if I turn in only two sentence while everybody else turns in a page or more.

I remeber strange things... like the color of the can opener in my first house... It was green.

That's the only thing that comes to mind right now.

Most of my other memories have been killed off by years of drugs and drinkng... God Bless Substance Abuse.

i find that certain smells bring memories rushing back. Like leaves in the fall, the smell of pavement when it rains or walnuts. Little things from when I was a kid.
Alot of the time it leaves me feeling empty and sad, because I miss those days.

Mine tend to jump into my mind without warning - and uninvited. Few are truly bad memories, but they're usually not things I'd like to remember. They're of things that passed - and ended. And the situations will never arise again.

Bad memories. Most of the time. Not good.

I love memories. They are what keep me going every day.

Remembering loved ones, things I have done, places I have visited, little things someone once said to me.

Sometimes they can be very real and can bring tears to my eyes very quickly. The good ones make me smile and I look forward to making many more like those.

Usually they are triggered by smells or perhaps a song, or a forgotten card or letter. It brings me back to the time and I remember fondly things that took place and the type of person I was back then.

MEMORIES....they can be the bane of your existence or the thing that gets you through each and every day....

sometimes both, sometimes neither, but no matter how you you see 'em you gotta work with 'em...

never heard of "Suppressed Memories"?

SM usuasly result from trauma. not all, though.

i make it almost a religion to never , ever forget what i go through may it be good or bad. the reason is, when they are bad they can do anything from bum you out to give you what i call "The Shakes" (basically imagine a less violent siezure).

in the end of 2000 and most if 2001 i would easily go from a great day to severe anxiety, including passing out. come to find out i was seeing/hearing things that reminded me of my uh not so fun stay in the hosp the last time..

it is not all bad. Greg it sounds like you had A Moment and its a good thing. it is a special feeling that is very, very rare.

the biggest thing i can tell you is this. it will happen more. use them to build character and rememberance.

i now have a lot more control over my bad ones and have learned to appreciate the good ones more.

oh. and a lot of the 'bad' memories become much sweeter in life as you grow older.

I am 41 years old and I find the older I get, the more I find myself thinking about and remembering things that I did when I was younger. I think that part of it may be seeing my sons at a age that I can remember well and seeing them experience things that I did at their age myself.

I've triggered memories every now and then. Like most people, it can be a smell, sound, or certain feel to a place, time, ect. Sometimes I even get a weird deja vu were I know I've had deja vu about the thing I'm having deja vu about... like deja vu to the third power...

Suppressed memories aren't foriegn to me either. I was in the hopsital a few years back and between two surgeries, I remember absolutely nothing. I've had doctors tell me the intense trauma must have made my brain block out what ever happened... but it is a very strange feeling not remembering a section of your life.

For me, it's music. I sometimes associate a song with a memory, even if I wasn't listening to it then. For example, that Grateful Dead some where they go "Across the river grandio" or something like that reminds me of when I was reading Children of the Mind at a library. I didn't say it was exciting.

For me it's usually music. I will listen to a song that i haven't heard in a long time and i'll feel a sudden rush of emotion. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Other times it will be smells. Whenever i smell a jersey of any kind i always think about my highschool football days.

It happens to me all the time. I definitely think it is an age thing. I usually enjoy them but they tend to make me a little sad at times.

sure... lots of times... there are many different triggers that bring up memories from all points in my life... smells, songs, movies, places, phrases, they are all triggers.

no, but i swear i can see the future... i'll dream about something (or at least i think it was a dream) and a few days later i'll be standing around or something, and soemthing will happen, and i feel like i knew this was going to happen and i had already seen it/ expeirienced it.... sooo its sorta like memories... but not clear ones... its weird and freaks me out

The following post brought back hundreds of memories:

http://tfproject.org/tfp/showthread....threadid=10482

More often than I'd like I remember a girl giving me advice about trying to get out and socialize more often something Id been telling myself years before she said it aloud and now its echoed by her in my mind when I tell myself I need to get out. Other than that on a very rare occasion when my mind wanders I find myself remembering some bad moments from my childhood Id thought Id forgotten.

This has definitely happened before, with about 25% of memories not pleasing. And talk about being a computer nerd...whenever I think of the smell of my first computer (a Power Mac 6100/60) right out of the box, or if I get a very slight whif of something similar, I instantly get a really vivid memory regarding the night that I first opened her up, after coming home from a boy scouts meeting.

I don't think that I'll ever forget that smell, because that computer shaped my character and personality, having ridiculously far-reaching effects on my psyche.

today i was playing basketball with a friend at our primary school. While shooting around it was great reminiscing about old times. Was really great, and we had a great laugh about it.
I am glad that i didn't smoke too much pot in HS, such that i couldn't remeber anything from my past. Memories are great.

sorry double post :o

I'm one of those people that tend to associate songs with memories. It happens.

I'm surprised that a couple people here have mentioned that their spontaneous memories centred around unpleasantness. Kinda glad I'm not the only one. I go out of my way now to put myself in certain places where a smell, song or other reminder won't "intrude".
Oscar perfume is a big no no for me now...as is the smell of rye or rum...

Certain smells get me...particularly incense. just the other day I was at a friends house and he was burning some...it totally reminded me of when I lived in Washington. Some nice memories there. It was cool because I hadn't thought about thatplace in awhile.

Oh yes, all the time.

I can remember things I did on dates with my first real love. I remember what she wore, what we did and how the evening turned out. It's scary how much of the detail I can remember. These thoughts appear at the strangest times too. They just pop into my head.

For me the triggers are usally music or food. And sometimes stress - when daily life is stressful I remember detailed incidents from the past as I fall asleep. Sometimes they relate to the situation athand (We are destined to repeat each psychosocial crisis until we resolve it type of stuff) and sometimes they are pleasant stress relieving memories.

yea all the time. there are cd's i cant listen to anymore or i come close to breaking out in tears. tons of memories....mostly damn women....they ruin us :D. ah just memories of good times now lost mostly. how all can be so good for so long, then all the sudden its gone. and it usualy comes back to you at the wrong times. espcialy when you are already down cause of something else....so you just keep falling

It's mostly music and smells.

I also have a fantastic memory and sometimes it's fun to parade through the halls, if only to smile.

I'll have the weirdest memories just pop up out of nowhere.

Seeing this thread title caused me to remember back when in first grade, I borrowed a peach colored crayon from some girl and she got on my case for slightly dulling the tip. Bitch.

I also remember when I was 3 or 4 at the very oldest, my parents had a '79 Dodge Aspen. My mom insisted that running the air conditioner on max a/c instead of normal used more gas, so she didn't. This didn't make sense to me so I told her she was wrong (I always was somewhat of a know it all smartass :D), but she wouldn't believe me.

Now I know for an absolute fact max doesn't use more gas, it just recirculates the inside air. I need to bring that up next time I talk to her and put that debate to rest once and for all. :)

usually it's old obscure tv shows that come to mind out of the blue. like today i rememberedwatching an episode of johnny bago or this one i don't know the name of where he's an alien that loses a necklace so he's stuck in human form and he has this little orb following him around. it was on in the late 80s on cbs.anybody know the name?