EPT
In this case it was a perfectly clear scene in which I was visiting a great aunt (since deceased) and I had my nose pressed against the french windows of her house, gazing out into the courtyard at the clump of fir trees and silver oaks. They cast their looming shadows over the packed dirt where grass growth had been stunted and the sky was a startling dark blue, not a bird flying overhead. My eleven year old second cousin pulled my long blond pigtails and dared me to go in and retrieve the ball we'd hit under the trees.
'Careful of the wolf that lives in there,' he taunted with a cheeky grin on his face, 'it'll drag you into its den and eat you for lunch!'
I spent a good few minutes contemplating my options. I could A) ask my aunt for another ball, B) I could admit to being a chicken and ask my other second cousin to fetch the ball, or C) I could man up and fetch the ball myself. I didn't want to appear a coward to Frazer, I looked up to him so much.
I snuck down the dark, wooden passageway, past the stained glass mural panel casting its eerie patterned light over the dining room, and into the kitchen where I asked one of the maids for a knife. She handed me a butter knife. I looked at it, wondering how I would stab a wolf with such a pathetic piece of blunt silverware. Logically, looking back, I shouldn't have expected her to hand a nine year old a cleaver, but I decided that without an adequate weapon I would just have to take my chances with a stick. I opened the french windows, and with Frazer looking on, I ran out into the courtyard and plunged my hand into the fern flowerbed that lined the back wall, looking over my shoulder at the trees and listening intently for the sound of growls. I found the ball easily enough, a shining red cricket ball amongst the bright green of the ferns and the dark brown of the mud, but upon turning around to escape the dreaded wolf yard, I found Frazer had slid the doors closed and was laughing at me safely from inside.
Just then a noise did emanate from the direction of the trees and I shrieked, dropping the ball and scaling the breezeblock wall that separated the courtyard from the pool area.
It later turned out to be my older cousin hiding amongst the trees as part of the practical joke, but ever since then certain colours have brought back the feeling of utter terror I experienced.
Of course this is just one example of visual stimuli. There is a certain shade of orange that reminds me of the leaves of a certain tree outside the house I spent the first five years of my life in. I remember lying in the fresh green grass, my head on the belly of our Golden Labrador, Tanner, looking up at the tree and thinking how beautiful it was - a leaf floating down and me catching it, examining the fine veins, the extraordinary autumn colour, the dead, thick stem.
The buzz of dragonflies reminds me of being twelve, a new house in another city, a swimming pool with white tiles. The clear water at the perfect temperature, the sun gleaming off the water droplets as they flew in all directions, the joyous splashing of friends and family as we played in the water, the dogs running around the pool barking at the dragonflies but too scared to join in our antics.
The crackling of the fire makes me think back to our little cottage in the mountains. A small lean-to wooden shack, with a manually stoked geyser. We would sit around the fire at night with only a radio for music, playing card games on the mattresses. Dusty and musty, old yellowing magazines, the wind howling outside, fresh fruit off the trees in our orchard, hiking up the mountain and scratching our legs on branches. Writing our names in charcoal inside the caves, seeing antelope leaping through the bushes.
What memories do you find triggered by small stimuli?
Edit: since this is my first blahg, I owe it to my irc friends to give a little shout out.
+ Show Spoiler +
I'll do a proper one when I'm not on my phone, so this is just a mention of all the people who have made me at home and have created a little family out of our channel. Firstly thanks to Shock710 for the initial welcome and making me want to stay. Next is packrat386 for being a friend and a good bitch to me, vGl-CoW for being a gentle, understanding guy (and for 2v2 sc2 with me), HwangjaeTerran for your great sense of humour and endless patience, Jaaaaasper for being the peace-keeper and topic changer, Azera for being smooth with girls and for making me feel special by asking me for advice, shiroiusagi for adding a feminine touch to our channel and just being all round awesome and easy to get along with, CreatorGX for keeping me motivated and inspired with his great art and his lovely, caring personality, divinO for his amazing portrait and life drawing work that makes me jealous plus his entertaining stories, dAPhREAk and MountainDewJunkie for their playful mocking and general entertainment value, marttorn for his beautiful voice and his great talent in music - seriously guys, he is so good at Beatles covers, Firebolt145 for helping me with my dota and for being the person I can talk to about anything, Aerisky for his pleasant and caring nature and of course his ability work hard through all situations, CamConnor for setting people straight and his blunt honesty, brian for his entertaining escapades and vast knowledge on all things alcohol and women, Archas for fulfilling everyone's Pokemon desires and for being a pretty cool guy in general, harodihg - our new family addition, welcome and I hope we get to know you better, imallinson for having our backs, for being really fun to DotA with and for being a genuinely nice person, farvacola for being one of the people I look up to a bit more than most for his alternative viewpoints and for the method he uses to clearly convey his views, dNa, coagulated, AimHere and Palmar for their occasional contributions to our discussions, MysteryMeat1 for being one of my original #teamliquid friends, motbob for his fair moderation and interest in contribution to the community, and last but not least - supernovamaniac for bringing our attention to e-sports when we drift too far from topic. There are probably people I have forgotten, ugh.
ofc songs are easy to relate to situations. It kinda becomes a theme song for people and scenarios.
