Emotional Memory
Why It Creates Such Powerful and Vivid Recollections
It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time." ~Barbara Kingsolver
NOTE: This repost is from April 18, 2022, and includes a few minor edits.
Memory can be a funny thing.
Sometimes, when you need it most, it can't be found. Like when someone is approaching you, waving, and calling your name. You realize that you should know this person; they obviously know you. But, no matter how hard you struggle to remember their name, your gray matter won't cough it up.
Then, there are times when something triggers a memory long forgotten. The trigger might be a song or a smell; it's always sensory. Suddenly, we're transported back to a time and place we haven't thought of in years.
I often stayed overnight at my great-aunt's house as a small child. She was a lot of fun and knew how to entertain children. My first experience with emotional memory occurred as a result of those visits, and it was pretty powerful.
Before bedtime, Aunt Pauline would draw a warm, bubbly bath and let me play for a while. There was always a bar of gold Dial soap and the toys she kept for my visits. Unbeknownst to me then, the scent of that soap would stay with me long after those overnighters ended.
Many years passed before I got another whiff of Dial soap, but the memories came flooding back when I did. For an instant, I could see that bathroom again in my mind's eye, light reflecting off the salmon-pink tile. I could feel the sudsy warm water against my skin and hear my aunt's cackle-like laughter. It was fantastic but fleeting.
The house we grew up in had a sizable backyard, and just beyond that were train tracks. In the '60s and '70s, there was a lot of activity on those tracks. Freight trains came by multiple times throughout the day and night, hauling lots of coal and other products. So we would race to the backyard during the daylight hours as soon as we heard the whistle off in the distance. Waiting patiently, we sat on a giant rock near the small crest overlooking the tracks. We would motion to the conductor, pumping our arms up and down, who blew the whistle again. After a long succession of boxcars and other types of freight cars, the rear brakeman, who always rode in the caboose, would wave or salute as the train disappeared around the bend.
While most people would complain about the noise, we grew accustomed to it, a comforting reminder that we were home. We lived on a quiet street (other than the trains), and on summer nights, the only sounds were the crickets and the hum of a box fan trying to cool the humid air.
I loved hearing the train whistle and feeling the vibrations as the approaching engine got closer. When I grew up and moved out, I left those sounds behind.
Many years later, while visiting relatives, I stayed near train tracks. It was a warm August evening. The bedroom window was open, and the crickets sang their familiar summer song.
Then, I heard it. A lowly train whistle far off in the distance. Suddenly, I was back in a twin bed in the old neighborhood of my childhood house. The feeling of nostalgia was heartwarming, and I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting desperately to hang on to it as long as possible. But, it was momentary, slipping away before I could wrap myself in its sweetness.
Who knew that seemingly insignificant things could stay with us, buried in the long-term memory of our brains? Instead, these things were a mundane part of daily life.
We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~Cesare Pavese
So, what causes them to generate the intense emotions they do so many years later?
I've always assumed it's the powerful feeling that we're pulled from the present moment and thrust back to a time that occurred many years prior. After all, the sensory components remain the same while we have changed.
While the process is still not fully understood, it's believed that the hippocampus and two amygdalae regions in the brain play key roles in processing memories and emotions. Interactions between the two may reinforce the link between them.
Most of us have old family photos that are occasionally brought out and reminisced over, a tangible connection to a past that's gone forever. Similar to those pictures are memorable occasions filed away in our subconscious minds. But, they're easily recalled due to their significance in our lives.
However, many thousands more exist that have slowly faded away. Seemingly insignificant moments that are all too soon forgotten.
Those rare occasions of emotional memory are golden opportunities to relive the moments that are no longer inconsequential for a few precious seconds. Only with the passage of time does the actual value of these flashbacks become obvious.
This is another reason we should live every moment to the fullest!
Learn more about emotional memory in this Psychology Today article.
Each man's memory is his private literature, and every recollection affects us with something of the penetrative force that belongs to the work of art. ~Aldous Huxley
The following song and lyrics, written by Kenny Chesney, are an example of how emotions trigger memories. We all have a few favorite songs that take us back to an earlier time in our lives. A time that is meaningful and memorable and often includes loss. Take a listen and check out the lyrics; it might conjure up some bittersweet recollections of your own.
I GO BACK - Lyrics
Jack and Diane painted a picture of my life and my dreams
Suddenly, this crazy world made more sense to me
Well, I heard it today, and I couldn't help but sing along
'Cause every time I hear that song
An' I go back to a two-toned short bed Chevy
Drivin' my first love out to the levy
Livin' life with no sense of time
An' I go back to the feel of a 50-yard line
A blanket, a girl, some raspberry wine
Wishin' time would stop right in its tracks
Every time I hear that song
I'll go back; I'll go back
I used to rock all night long to "Keep On Rockin' Me Baby"
Frat parties, college bars, just tryin' to impress the ladies
Well, I heard it today, and I couldn't help but sing along
'Cause every time I hear that song
An' I go back to the smell of an old gym floor
The taste of salt on the Carolina shore
After graduation and drinkin' goodbye to friends
And I go back to watchin' summer fade to fall
Growin' up too fast, and I do recall
Wishin' time would stop right in its tracks
Every time I hear that song
I'll go back; I'll go back
We all have a song that somehow stamped our lives
Takes us to another place and time
So I go back to a pew, preacher, and a choir
Singin' 'bout God, brimstone, and fire
And the smell of Sunday chicken after church
And I go back to the loss of a real good friend
And the 16 summers I shared with him
Now, "Only The Good Die Young" stops me in my tracks
Every time I hear that song
I'll go back; I'll go back
To the feel of a 50-yard line
A blanket, a girl, some raspberry wine
I'll go back (I'll go back)
To watchin' summer fade to fall
Growin' up too fast, and I do recall
I'll go back (I'll go back)
To the loss of a real good friend
And the sixteen summers I shared with him
I'll go back
I'll go back; I'll go back
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
“Have you ever experienced moments of emotional memory?”
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Scents and sounds are so evocative. I loved this post - thank you. The scent of lambing time takes me back to being a tiny child. Ditto the hen house. Orange peel is Christmas. Believe it or not, diesel is holidays! We'd always hire a canal boat every October, and the smell of diesel takes me straight back to that annual week-long holiday as a family. Any repetitive sound of metal on wood reminds me of my mum rolling out pastry, as her wedding ring would meet the rolling pin.
Thank you, Ms W, for bringing these special memories flooding back. 😊
I have these moments often. I moved near the area I grew up in over 50 years ago. The sights aren't familiar but the scents (oak and pine trees, freshly cut grass, bales of hay) and sounds (the blue jays cawing, the doves cooing "bob white", the wind murmuring through the maple trees, and the far off gunfire in the fall from deer hunting) bring me right back to early years.
But my absolute favorites are getting out the old family box of Christmas ornaments... it still carries with it the scent of old sap from the blue spruce pine trees, the scented dust from the nativity scene, and the smell of bayberry and cinnamon candles from brought out each year from my infancy. It's all I have left from those days, but the memories are strong enough to hold when I wish to remember the past.