People say that smell is the sense most closely linked to memory (they say that, right?), but I would submit sound as a close second. Specifically musical sounds. So when I feel like being awash in reminiscence, I want to hear the songs of my youth.
If I could smell my childhood, I’m not sure what it would smell like–nail polish? McDonald’s? Catholic guilt?–but if I could hear the soundtrack to my childhood, it would certainly sound like this: Soft 90’s (Pandora station link). Through this experiment I have concluded that the ’90s, where I spent most of my formative years, was backed entirely by melancholy songs featuring acoustic guitars, harmonicas, and vowels ending in the letter “A.”
If you, too, were a child of the ’90s, or if you spent a lot of time listening to the radio in the ’90s because that was the only real option, please enjoy. I can promise repeated moments of groaning followed by “Oh, nooooo” quickly replaced by a long “Yessssssss.” You will cringe at how many songs you still remember all the words to.
You will be taken back to a simpler time: a time before iPods and the possibility that you might quite unknowingly become a pirate, but not the cool kind. A time perhaps before the Internet and email or at least of dial up modems. A time when you could open a webpage and go do something else for a few minutes while it loaded, a time when you had to shout at your sister to get off the phone because you were ON THE COMPUTER! A time when tables were an acceptable form of graphic design. A time before advertisers could follow you around for hours. A time when if you wanted to talk to someone a vocal interaction was required. A time when there were a mere 100 TV channels to choose from (or 7, if you were me without cable). A time when the most you had to worry about was your upcoming report on Argentina and how many photocopies Kinkos would let you make from your World Book Encyclopedia. A time when the worst that could happen at the airport was that your flight was delayed. A time when the world was smaller and you were insulated from the daily terrors faced by other countries. A time before you knew what a calorie was, and the most thought you put into your food was whether you could convince your friend with the pizza lunchable that they definitely wanted to trade you for your boring ham lunchable. A time when going to the mall was the best way to entertain yourself. Especially after they banned hacky sacks from school because that one kid broke his toe. A time when you read books printed on paper (like Goosebumps), a time when you played games printed on boards (even Electronic Mall Madness!), a time when your parents read the news printed on newspaper (and you read the Sunday comics for Calvin and Hobbes). A time when you watched a movie and believed someone really blew that building up and that actor really jumped off of it just in time. A time when you wanted to play guitar like Dave Matthews, be an actor like Leo DiCaprio, be a space explorer or anything at all, and it was possible. A happy time, I hope. A time when everything was “A”-okay.
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