I Ran Across An Old Memory The Other Day

It was sometime in the early 1980s. It was a stretch of state highway 5 between Blue Ridge and Ellijay near Whitepath. On the car radio was my favorite radio station at the time, Atlanta’s 94Q. The song was “Waiting For A Girl Like You” by Foreigner. The car’s dashboard lights illuminated a tiny space in the car while outside darkness fell in a velvety black covering. Above, away from the lights on street corners, the stars twinkled in silver flecks against a bluish purple sky which looked more like backdrop painted by an artist.

I don’t really remember any more about all this than what I just wrote. I don’t recall whether it was summer or winter or spring or fall. I don’t remember the exact time of the evening. I don’t remember if I was with anyone else at that moment or not. I don’t even remember which direction I was headed. As a matter of fact it probably wouldn’t take much to convince me that the song on the radio may have been Foreigner’s “Urgent” and the radio station may have been 96 Rock.

That memory passed through my mind the other day out of the blue. Strange, isn’t it? So many things nowadays a body has to remember and out of nowhere a few seconds from thirty years ago comes up from behind crowding out all the space reserved for remembering and makes itself at home.

I’m not sure why that specific memory crept back in after all these years. I can’t board some time machine and go back. Although I loved my life then I’m not too sure I would even want to go back if I could, even for a brief time.

I know these things. Today, that stretch of road is still there. It is off the beaten path nowadays, thanks to a four lane highway connecting the two mountain towns. 94Q and 96 Rock are distant memories on the radio dial, replaced by a different generation of personalities and music. I am certain at night the stars still shine silvery-like against a dark mixture of colors along that same stretch of road even with the modern newfangled dashboards of our cars today.

I wish I could find some deep hidden meaning in that particular memory. I don’t really find any the longer I think about it. I do know I’ve got a lot of snippets of yesterdays like that floating around between my ears or fluttering around somewhere between my heart and my head or wherever such things reside. Now and then one of them pays me a visit, causing me to slow down for a moment and to look back. Sometimes I pause and reflect and can discover something to help me along my way today. Other times, I find I can only look back and smile before looking ahead and moving on.