David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on

The Strange Magic Of Sense Memory - August 2025

We’re told there are five senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch – and depending on how much you like ghost-hunting shows with ESP, maybe a sixth. But forget the supernatural for a moment. The real magic happens when those everyday senses suddenly catapult you somewhere else in your mind – across decades, across continents – without you even buying a plane ticket.

If I ask you to think about a color – let’s say green – and you’re old enough to read this sentence, you’ll surely form an image in your mind. It might be money, treetops, Kermit the Frog, a crayon, or hundreds of other things in dozens of shades. But if I ask you to remember that first flash of outfield grass you saw on your first visit to a baseball game as you stepped through the stadium tunnel, you’ll have the exact same shade in your mind as I do. It’s an unmistakable memory that any baseball fan has locked in.

Or, I can ask you to imagine the color tan instead, and you might picture any number of shades, but if I say “the color of candy shop caramels,” we’re now sharing the same image.

Those are examples of visual triggers, but what about associated sounds? We’ll all agree that a still image can’t make noise – unless I show you this one:

Your brain just filled up with that same deep-voiced, melodic “Hello my baby…” that I have in mine. Suddenly, that “no sound in still images” certainty doesn’t feel quite so certain.

Smell might be the heavyweight champion of sense memory. A whiff of Play-Doh will throw me straight back to childhood faster than a time machine. It’s one of the reasons I keep some in my home – that odor is calming in a way I can’t understand, much less explain. If you’ve ever smelled it, you’ll never forget the bouquet – and our memories of the odor are identical, while still defying description.

Travel has its own smell triggers. Some examples? Some prominent resort hotels create and circulate signature fragrances so you’ll associate that pleasant odor with your time there. It’s long been believed that Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom pump chocolate chip cookie smells onto Main Street – a fact I’ll neither confirm nor deny as I run to buy something to eat. Even movie theaters are rumored to pump popcorn scents into lobbies to boost sales of overpriced buckets.

For airline travel, the best you can hope for is no smell or taste at all, which sadly doesn’t happen often enough. I have sensitive taste buds, so I never order tea or coffee on a plane because some airlines fill the pot with water from the lavatory taps, and I can smell and taste that mildewy taint right now just by mentioning it. All you can do is hope the “sanitizing wipe” the airline gives you is strong enough to remove anything else you might have to touch and smell along your journey. As for taste, I stick with things that are wonderfully predictable – the Biscoff cookie and the Stroopwafel come to mind as flavors I’ve probably made you remember just by mentioning them.

When you land and head for the rental car, if you happen to step into one where the prior driver was a smoker, you instantly know that stale odor left behind – the kind that makes you jump out and pick a different car from the aisle (if you were smart enough to rent from National).

Why do our brains have these sensory “cheat codes” – hidden shortcuts to emotional Easter eggs? Science will tell you sensory inputs shortcut their way to the emotional centers of the brain, bypassing the logical detours. Think of it as “mind time travel” – the miracle of being transported to another decade, another place, without even being aware you were headed there before the exploit happened.

So, here’s the challenge I leave you with: the next time you’re in motion – boarding a train, stepping onto a flight, even just pulling into your driveway after a long trip – pause for a second. Notice what you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch in that moment. Tuck it away. Because one day, years from now, something will sneak up and hand that memory back to you. And you’ll be right there again – boarding pass in hand, bag slung over your shoulder – grinning at how your brain just pulled off the best upgrade in travel: a free, first-class ticket to the past.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

Copyright 2025 David Danto

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