Friday, June 17, 2022

The Soundtrack at the Hotel

It's coming up on my two-year anniversary with INDYCAR and that first year in 2020 felt, well, traveling with the series in the midst of the pandemic made for an anxious time. At the end of each workday there was a strong sense of relief entering the safety of my hotel room and so often greeting me on the television, when we stayed at a Marriott branded hotel, was the song on the menu screen that played during their video on all the precautions they had taken. I hadn't heard that song for at least a year until last week when we stayed at a Fairfield Inn and when I entered the room I was taken back.


It is amazing how much memory lies within a song. I was taken back to St. Pete 2020 and the realization that the season was coming to an end. I was also, at the same time, taken to St. Pete 2021 and the excitement of the start of a season.

Music, for me, is one of the most private things about my life. I will never say that I like or dislike a song because, by doing so, I am letting you in on the memories associated with a song. All the music I listen to is linked to a person, place, time, idea, or hope I had when I heard the song. 

I think most of us, autism spectrum or not, share this trait. Music has the power to take a person back to any previous time in their life, but for those of us on the autism spectrum that have exceptional memories, it can be almost confusing to feel such a level of confliction when hearing a song.

On the last day at the hotel I made sure to make that video of that song. I've tried to remember how it went, as simple as it is, and now won't have to wonder if I'll ever hear it again. Any time I want to go back in time, all I have to do is hear that song. There's been other songs that have had that same sense of mystique about them, and if you know of the song LodgeNet used in spring of 1998, please let me know.

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