"Funny How a Melody Sounds Like a Memory"

Follow my blog with Bloglovin {Day 29,  Topic: 5 Songs}

Music is everywhere in my life, attached to most of my memories. I've always found it funny how a song can be connected to a moment in time, even if that particular memory isn't an important one, but simply just life. So what songs do I share? There are so many to choose from....

Childhood...

 

My childhood is marked by songs by The Beatles, Elvis, and The Beach Boys. Music is one of those things I never forget and I can still remember the lyrics to almost any song even if I haven't heard it in years. But stronger are the memories attached to these songs. What I think of when I hear songs from my Cocktail Soundtrack tape, who comes to mind when I hear songs by The Voice of the Beehive or The Bangles, or the mental picture I see when I hear Kokomo. But I am going to share a lesser known song. When I was young I had 2 favorite tapes- a recording of Shel Silverstein reciting his poems and Barry Polisar's Naughty Songs for Boys and Girls. I had them up until a few years ago when one of the boys' music players pulled the tape and I couldn't wind it back. But this one is one of my all time favorites: Never Cook Your Sister in a Frying Pan....and when I hear it I can see my younger self, my room, my toys, my tape player...

 Love...

 

Being a rather empathetic person I love most any love song. I can feel the feelings, good or bad, regardless if there are any similarities to my life. There are many, many songs out there that remind me of my love. But there are two song that I would say are "ours".

The fist takes me back to 17 years ago, at age 16, falling in love with my future husband. I was dating someone when we met, so we started out as friends. Head Over Feet came out right around that time, so it was on the radio all the time and the lyrics just spoke to me. And it didn't take long for me to fall head over feet for Paul....

 You've already won me over in spite of me
And don't be alarmed if I fall head over feet
Don't be surprised if I love you for all that you are
I couldn't help it
It's all your fault

And then there's Remember When,  which describes...

Our past- Remember when I was young and so were you, And time stood still and love was all we knew 

Our present- Remember when the sound of little feet, Was the music we danced to week to week

And our future- Remember when we said when we turned gray, When the children grow up and move away, We won't be sad, we'll be glad, For all the life we've had, And we'll remember when

Sadness...

 

I've mentioned my struggle with depression a time or two. It's a part of who I am, some days a bigger part than others. I know many people who surround themselves with happiness when they are feeling down- happy books, people, movies and music- but that's not how I work. I tend to surround myself with sad things and music is the front runner. Listening to sad music, while it may make my feelings worse for a moment, works as sort of a release. And I end up feeling better because of it. There's something about not feeling so alone. Hearing the lyrics, you know that someone else, somewhere out there is feeling just like you.

And 2 of the songs I listen to most are:

Runaway Train, by Soul Asylum. This one came out back when I was in middle school and it's been with me ever since.

 "Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life's mystery seems so faded "

And finally, the #1 song. If I could pick just one to share, a theme song of sorts, this one would be it. It's the song I play on repeat when I have bad days. It's the song I feel deep inside. And the one I can identify with the most....so if you ever want to know what's going on inside the head of someone who suffers from depression, this is it:

Full of Grace, Sarah McLachlan

I feel just like I'm sinking
And I claw for solid ground
I'm pulled down by the undertow
I never thought I could feel so low
Oh darkness I feel like letting go
If all of the strength and all of the courage
Come and lift me from this place
I know I could love you much better than this
Full of grace

So those are my 5 songs. What songs are on your life's playlist? (And in case anyone is wondering, this post's title [ "Funny How a Melody Sounds Like a Memory" ] comes from the song Springsteen, by Eric Church)

{Review} Saving Memories Forever

 I am a memory collector. Most of my memories are on paper- collections of photo albums, movie stubs, scrapbook pages, articles, etc. Some are computer files of pictures or video clips or my blog posts. But with the exception of those few video clips of my kids as they grow up, I don't have a lot of oral memories collected. Enter Saving Memories Forever.

Saving Memories Forever is a smartphone application and website designed to help record, save and share your family's memories. They have a free version if you want to try it out and a paid version if you want unlimited stories, storytellers and less restrictions in general.

How the Product Works:

The first step is to sign up- which can be done by downloading the app onto your smartphone or by going to their website. Once you are signed in you come to the storyteller page. I was given a premium subscription to help with my review, so I was able to have unlimited storytellers. You can add your storytellers, a picture and all of their information from this page.

When you are ready to record your memories, choose your storyteller and then you will be prompted to choose a category for your story. Most of the categories are age related, though there are some general categories like jokes- which my kids enjoyed, and now I have tons of knock, knock jokes to remember this age by! Once you choose your category you will be prompted to choose a question. These questions cover all sorts of topics from vague to very specific (great for those like me, who might not be able to come up with  your own story off the top of your head with out a prompt!)

 And then you are ready to record! Press record and go! Once the recording is done, you have the option of rerecording if you need to start over or uploading the story to the website for storage and later listening.

On the website you can listen to your saved stories, add tags for easier searching, transcripts, or photos to the story.

The Bottom Line:

 

I love the idea behind this product. I love that it is portable and that you can record memories as they come. While visiting grandparents, siblings, cousins, old friends, etc. you can capture these stories in  each individual's voice. You will be able to hear your grandfather tell that old story, the one he told a million times, long after he's no longer around to tell it.  The bonuses of being able to add photos, transcripts, recipes and other documents to your stories make it even better and more expandable. Almost like a verbal scrapbook.

I personally prefer a more paper/visual scrapbook. I like to look at pictures, read old letters or read through journals. But even though I would probably never be my own storyteller, I know lots of people who would.

The app worked flawlessly on my phone. I had no trouble downloading, opening or recording from my device and I had no trouble accessing my files on the website. I even downloaded it from my husband's phone, which has a history of restarting itself often, to see if the app would cause any issues- and it worked fine on his phone as well.

So if you are headed to a family reunion this summer or just simply want to remember what your daughter or son sounded like when they were 1 yr, old this app can do that for you, and you will never have to rely on your own memory, which tends to fade with time.

Where to Get it:

You can download the apps from the iTunes App Store or Google Play, and is listed under Saving Memories Forever. As I mentioned you can try out the free version or opt for the paid subscription for $3.99/month or $40/yr. If you would like to know more about the differences between these 2 versions visit the Saving Memories Forever Website for a breakdown.

Memories- The Box

Under Lakin's bed is a sea of boxes. Old CDs, paperback books, some of my school work from preschool through highschool, toys, and my memory box. Every so often I pull it out and look through it. So when Rylan wanted to look through my CDs I pulled this box out too.

It was put together in 1992, when I was in the 7th grade, with my best friend Melanie. It was our scrapbook of sorts. We decorated it will clipping from Teen Magazine and stickers from the Scholastic book club. Inside is a whole lot of stuff. From 1992 through around 1996. It grew from just Melanie and me to include my other high school best friends- Katie and Andrea

It started with our actual scrapbook. With cover pages for each school year like this one:

Teen magazine was our friend for decorations there too. The pages are construction paper filled with pictures and words on all our memories. Good and bad.

Our 8th grade dance....
9th grade when we spent all free time at the West Town Mall and the Dollar Movie Theater. Buying nail polish in every imaginable color at the dollar store and when boys were our lives.

No teen girl scrapbook could be complete without the pages dedicated to those stars we loved back then. There are pages for Christian Slater, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix...a little silly looking back on them....

The scrapbook isn't the only thing in that box. It hold a whole lot of other memories- as well as proof that I am a pack rat.

A little black book containing hundreds of movie ticket stubs- times 4. The Mask, Then and Now, Trial by Jury, Legends of the Fall, The River Wild, Batman Forever, Interview with a Vampire, Pulp Fiction- although if I remember correct we got thrown out of that one the first time. And got a talking to by the man who took us out and a lecture to take home to our parents who bought the tickets for us. It was the only R movie we ever got taken out of and we went back and saw it later....
It holds a couple of our 8th grade class newspapers....my name is down there under features...

It holds my calendars- which from 1995-1997 looked like this:
The goal was to have something written every single day. The names of the boys we met around town were recorded, tests, appointments, phone calls, and if nothing happened something random would be written....


It holds the letters- and envelopes- from my friend Andrea when she spent a month at her dad's one summer. Can you tell she's an artist?


It holds this quilt. Andrea and I sewed it by hand in a week. Each of our 4 names are on the side, the corner blocks hold the names of the current-love in each of our lives. The other blocks depict some important event. Our beach house in Nags Head, the Mall, a telephone, the TN Valley Fair, our Moon Walk- when we walked the loop in Cades Cove after dark on a full moon. I love this quilt. It's been in this box forever but when I look at it I can remember each of the things it depicts as well as the week we made it. During a trip to visit Andrea's family in Virginia when we stayed in a cabin. With no hot water the first day, where I got the belt that still hangs in my closet, where there were so many bees in the cabin we started to capture them under jars and stick them with pins on cardboard for our bee collection....