Longing For The Good ‘ol Days
Did they really exist, or are we deluding ourselves with our memories? I think that we can all dig up memories of our past and relive the best parts. I’ve read that we really don’t remember our memories as they actually eventuated; Our memories leave out a lot of the details and our memories are more like puzzle pieces that are not put together correctly, with missing pieces scattered around. I disagree.
I am pretty sure I remember certain memories and the only pieces missing is that I can’t remember every single second of every minute from long ago. What I do remember are the colors, the people and how they appeared, the season and the feeling of that memory. To me, my memories are vivid, even if they are partial memories.
There is an urban myth that I was told when I was growing up that we only use about ten percent of our brains. Well, that’s been debunked through psychological science as well as a plethora of other myths including one that says that brain development is finished by puberty.
When you look at the overall brain structure and how different parts of it are associated with different functions of our physiology, it seems a bit of a stretch that we only use ten percent of it. Both hemispheres do work together and communicate throughout our daily existence. Memories are stored in the hippocampus and other related structures in the temporal lobe. The occipital lobe is used for sight, while other brain functions are being used throughout our day at the same time. Our brains are multitasking. All added up, we have to be using more than ten percent of our brains at any given time.
I guess that with memories, that are filed away in the hippocampus, triggers our recall and our imagination, to provide us with those special memories that give us the ‘good feelings.’ So what if it isn’t that accurate? That’s a lot of information that is stored away throughout our lives. I think that we are pretty close to being accurate when we remember memories from long ago, because we lived those memories in the first place.
Music is a wonderful instigator of producing memories, as well as smells, or even tastes. There are days when the sun is at the right angle in the sky and the season casts a sense of memory of another time long ago, which produces a memory of great joy, and it’s almost as it I am reliving that moment in the present. It all just comes together and feels nice.
I love my memories and feeling melancholic at times. For me, music brings back times of joy. Back in the early eighties, when the new wave of music was having an impact on my life, I used to travel to Bowling Green University and walk out to the football stadium at night. It was dark and I would walk up to the highest seats and look over the edge of the stadium toward the highway, I-75, to watch and listen to the traffic pass by. I frequented this spot weekly in the humid summer of July, 1982. It was just a fun thing to do. I had the whole stadium to myself and I would spend hours there. I remember it so clearly.
On my drive home, I would listen to CBC radio out of Windsor, Ontario. There was a show called ‘Brave New Waves’ with a host called Brent Bambury, and he would introduce all this new music for me to discover. I would pull into my driveway and sit in my car and listen to this with the engine turned off until late in the night. I remember it so clearly, at least the mood of it. There was another show on CBC radio but I can’t remember the name of it…, oh yeah, I remember it now, it was called Night Life and it was awesome too.
The radio played a significant part of my memories. I used to travel two hours in Iowa, when I was at university, to play hockey in the Quad Cities area. On the way home I could pick up WJR out of Detroit and listen to the Detroit Red Wing game replay. Those are memories I would love to relive. Those memories actually settle my physiology. I have so many wonderful memories of living in Toledo when I was young. There are sounds that I would love to hear again, like the sounds of the trains late at night traveling through the city in the distance, and the sound of car tires going down our red brick road at night in the summer time.
Nostalgia is a good thing. It’s comforting. I’m sorry if I get a little weird here, but just like the music that has played a big part of my life, so do all the special memories I have and I wish that when I die that I can somehow take them with me.
Yeah, those were my good ‘ol days. Another memory I had was riding my bike around South Toledo and into the Maumee township. I would end up at a couple of apartment complexes near the Southwyck Mall area. I would sneak into the pool in the dark and swim quietly for a while to cool off from the humidity and ride home afterwards. It was fun doing this late at night. There were other times I would go to the golf course at night and either ride my bike around the fairways or just walk them. A couple of times I was chased by the superintendent, but would dodge getting caught.
There are some people who say not to dwell in the past. Well, they can bugger off, because I love dwelling in my memories. I need to create new memories. I need to get on my bike and do some night rides. I know I’m getting older, and of course us older people need to behave ourselves and act responsibly. …. Yeah, right. So what if I have a heart attack while riding late at night, I like to think that I will be a great memory for someone when they discover my body on their way to work in the morning! Muhahaha…
