Nostalgia

Good Monday to you! First, let me say thank you for taking your valuable time to read my words. I truly enjoy sharing them with you and I hope I bring value to your day when you read them.

I was listening to an audiobook over the weekend and the author mentioned nostalgia. The way that we all seem to connect with something that takes up back to our past and how it makes us feel. A little shot of serotonin, if you will.

This author mentioned crayons. How he would often keep a crayon around to bring him that comfort of nostalgia. Didn’t matter the color, just one to feel the paper and the contrast of the smooth wax and then, the one thing that really takes you back, the smell. Picture it and think about it. Right?

A few of my own personal ones are similar in that they relate to a tactile sensation. I think that makes it even better, when we don’t have to rely purely on our memories, but can place it with an actual physical response. So, here’s some of mine:

The smell of the furnace the first time it kicks on in the fall, the smell of #2 pencils, hearing a REO Speedwagon song from Hi-Infidelity album (we played it non-stop my senior year of HS), the thought of the smell of an old mimeograph paper (way old school), mothballs (when I arrived at Army boot camp, all our new issued clothing had been stored in mothballs) and finally, probably the weirdest one of all…the smell of leaded gasoline exhaust….it makes me want hot dogs because it brings back the memory of going to the dirt track car races with my Pop on Saturday nights.

What are some of yours? What ‘takes you back?’ Please feel free to share if you’d like, I’m curious to know. If you don’t want to share, that’s cool, just enjoy a trip back in time and relive some pleasant memories.

Lead forward

Chief Chuck