Forget Photography, My Memories Are Stored in Music

Girls, Cars, M.C. Escher and Bill Mazeroski

Experts claim that smell is the sense most closely related to memory. I know that whenever I smell a candle that's just been blown out, I immediately think of chocolate cake with white icing. The only time we had candles growing up was on birthday cake, so that's what I associate with that particular smell.

But I have many memories associated with sound, specifically music. I have many songs that take me back to a specific time and place. These are not necessarily my favorite tunes, just ones that hold a distinct memory.

Here is a list of 10 songs that I cannot hear on the radio without thinking of a time, place or person.

Highway to Hell: This song immediately brings me back to freshman year in high school, waiting for the bus. The area where we waited was an empty lot and there would be around 40-50 kids waiting for the "7:30 special", the city bus that went down Luten Avenue and dropped you off right in front of the school. Anyway, this was the era that boom boxes first became popular, the giant ones that made one arm develop muscles that were twice as big as the other and that would take 12 batteries to run. Every morning, while waiting for the bus to arrive, several different groups of kids would be playing this song.

Don't You Want Me Baby: I had this thing for a girl named Beth, who was pretty hot in a late 70s disco kind of way, but really had nothing else to recommend her. Anyway, I would hang out at her house a lot. Her mom and little brother wanted her to go out with me, which immediately ruined any remote chance that had of happening. She would always play this song while getting ready to go out. I can't hear this song without visualizing her with her curling iron, doing her hair and singing along. Last I heard Beth married the older brother of a guy she used to go out with when I knew her. Sometimes things work out for the best.

Don't Stop Believing: New Year's Eve, 1981. The first time I ever got sick drinking. Of course, I drank a bottle of 100 proof Southern Comfort that night, so it's not like I didn't deserve to throw up non-stop for four hours. Hearing this song is one of the last things that I remember from that night.