This morning on my way through an alley to retrieve my morning cup of coffee, I passed a refrigerated delivery truck and heard the sound of the driver opening the latch on the rear doors. The sliding latch, then squeaking of the doors took me instantly to some of the best Summers I had in college, driving a truck for Edelmann's Sausage Co. If you ever went to a festival at a Catholic church in town you may recall the big green trucks parked there, keeping hundreds of pounds of metts, hotdogs and brats cold. My job was to deliver the truck on Thursday, set it up, orient the festival folks on how to operate the refrigerator, then retrieve it on Monday. Everyone was happy to see the big green truck and I met more people those Summers than I can ever count.
Anyway, this got me thinking about how sounds, scents and music all do this to me. If I hear Joni Mitchell's "Canada" I'm instantly transported back to the apartment my wife and I shared before we got married. The smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke reminds me of Crosley and Riverfront, and so on. Memories, good and bad flood uncontrollably into my mind at these triggers and I was wondering if others experienced the same things and what their own trigger/memories might be.