Taken back by sights, sounds and smells

B5

By Brigette Maersden

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Pete's recent trip to the UK was by all accounts a mix of experiences and emotions.

I was unable to go due to work commitments, but we texted each other and spoke every day, thanks to the wonders of modern technology.

He enjoyed seeing family and friends, helped his Mum celebrate her 60th birthday and did a lot of shopping. On the flip side, the hectic pace and galloping prices were quite an adjustment for him after nearly four years here in New Brunswick.

As Pete unpacked his suitcase on his return, which seemed to hold more food than clothes, it turned into quite the trip down memory lane. It's funny how the different items somehow held associations that went way beyond the object itself.

Take the packet of strawberry-flavoured candy known as "pigs' noses," would you believe just one whiff instantly brought back childhood memories for Pete.

Seeing tinned steak and kidney pies again took me right back to the early days of our life together. Just looking at it, I could see and even smell one as it came hot and fragrant out of the oven on a chilly evening.

It must be the way our brains are wired that causes us to make connections between a smell, sight or sound and a memory or even a feeling, whether positive or negative.

To this day I feel nauseous when I smell a certain kind of disinfectant and I know it goes right back to the day I was ill at primary school. On the other hand, simply hearing the sound of a vacuum cleaner instantly makes me feel relaxed and sleepy – go figure! And if I ever got my hands on a sherbert dip, I know I would be transported straight back to the little old corner store where we received this tangy treat every week on our way home from school.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and marketers know this. Just look at the retro packaging on things like Burt's Bees products, or the way styles from years gone by seem to reappear in "modern" fashion trends – from classics like stilettos and pencil skirts right through to fashion horrors such as puff-ball skirts and harem pants.

It happens with music too: remember the rock and roll revival in the 1970s, fanned into flame by the movie Grease and endless episodes of Happy Days on TV? A few years back, "lounge music" a la Dean Martin and the like suddenly enjoyed a flowering amongst the hip and trendy of Britain's youth – very bizarre.

On the other hand, I feel I must confess at this point that I became quite excited last year when Pete surprised me with copy of the Best of the Wombles album and was once again able to enjoy such forgotten classics from the 1970s as Hall of the Mountain Womble. Grieg is probably turning in his grave, but at least composer Mike Batt did a good job, unlike some of the modern remakes we hear, not to mention the reappearance of many classic – and classical – tunes in the form of sampling.

Have you heard the new punk version of Summer Loving? Now that's what I call sacrilege!