A while back, my wife was going through some of her deceased mother’s memory books and collections of newspaper clippings, etc. She was organizing, scanning and reading.

You know the old saying; “you can’t clean an attic if you can read.” The point of that is that it’s hard not to pause and read everything you find, and therefore the work never gets done.

One of the newspaper clippings that Diane found and liked was a poem. She shared it with me. It has brought to mind again a concept that most all of us experience.

The clipping didn’t show the name of the poet; but I’m suspecting that it was either Ben Burroughs or James J. Metcalfe. Several other similar clippings were attributed to them. Here it is:

Music is a Diary

Music is a diary… Of days of long ago… The sadness and the happiness… And friends we used to know… When we are young, each song is just… Another tune to sing… But as the years go drifting by… What memories they bring!… Each melody reminds us of… A certain time and place… And on the keyboards of our dreams… We see a special face… Yes, music is a diary… Of memories to keep… Some that we cherish while awake… And others while we sleep… Some folks consider music as… Our most important art… And they are right because it keeps… A record of the heart.

It is an interesting phenomenon to hear a song on the radio and immediately be transformed to another time and place. Most people like to continue to listen to the music of their youth – for that reason, I suppose. That must be why “oldies” stations are able to thrive.

As the poem says, songs remind us of happy times and sad times. Past relationships are brought back to life. Awkward moments at dances are remembered. Sometimes feelings of homesickness or “love sickness” are part of the remembrance.

I left home in the fall of 1970 and did my freshman year of college at USU in Logan. It was mostly a very happy time. But I had little twinges of homesickness here and there.

James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” song was out that year and got lots of airtime on the radio. It’s a great song, but I do associate it with some melancholy moments in life. But “melancholy” is what the song really speaks to, from events of JT’s personal life. And that’s what makes it such a great associative musical memory.

I’m sure we could all sit in a room and tell lots of stories about the musical memories and associations with songs that we all have. It’s a fun, heart warming, common experience we have as fellow humans.

I believe that the same memory-making phenomenon exists with movies. When we think of certain movies, we often remember whom we were with, what the circumstances were, and when it was.

We were at the SouthTowne Theater in Ephraim a couple of weeks ago. We saw Steven Spielberg’s new version of the famous musical, “West Side Story.” It’s the “Romeo and Juliet” inspired love story involving rival gangs in 1950’s New York City. We really liked it.

It took me back to the 1961 original movie which starred Natalie Wood as Maria. As a young man I was quite enamored with Natalie. (Fun Fact: Her birthname was: Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko. She was born in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents. Now you know why many movie stars choose “stage names.”)

There wasn’t a big crowd there at the show house the night we went. I would say there were twenty or so in the auditorium. I’m glad we went. There are just some movies that are extra fun to see on the big screen while eating buttery popcorn and Hot Tamales. I think we made memory.

A memorable birthday party for me was in June of 1994 at the Basin Drive-in. A group of us had chairs, blankets and boom boxes. We enjoyed the movie “Maverick” with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner. Another great nostalgia night at the drive-in was taking the VW Campmobile and seeing Elvis in a special showing of “Jailhouse Rock.”

In my lifetime, my parents seldom went to the movies. So the few times I was there with them were memorable. I don’t think I would remember the title of the show “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” if my dad and mom hadn’t been there. (I still have fond memories of the actress Suzanne Pleshette)

My parents liked to travel, so a romantic comedy movie based on a European travel tour was what convinced them to go. We went to the old “Carol” theatre in Monroe. That show house stopped showing movies many years ago.

One of the fun parts of going there was getting soda pop out of the machine in the lobby and then seeing if you could roll the empty bottle to the front of the theatre. The sound of rolling bottles was part of the movie experience.

So, here’s a challenge. Keep listening to music and going to movies. Do other things with your friends and family too. It’s never too late to make memories that will last a lifetime.

As Carly Simon sang in the song, “Anticipation” – “…these are the good old days!” The activities that we do now, which may seem routine and unimportant, are the things you’ll be remembering in the future with fondness. — Merrill

Newsletter