Have you ever heard something that brought you back, even for a couple seconds, to a past moment in your life? I had one of those moments on Friday.

I was walking down campus to the post office, and passed the campus radio station, which pipes music to the outside on a small speaker. They were playing "Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. That started the process, given my predeliction for prog rock and the song's age. I kept walking, and the song faded into the background.

Then came the second sound, the one that really took me back. The deep thrum of the wind as it passes through the trees, rustling the leaves on both branches and ground, rose up from everywhere. And for a few seconds, between that and the song (which was barely audible by then), I was back to grade school.

I remembered great days in the fall when you'd go to the high school football game, sneak in through the golf course, and not watch any of the game because you were playing pick-up games with friends (and the occasional team of kids from the opponent's town, games that often saw more punches than passes thrown). Then the walk home, hearing that thrum, smelling leaves burning and chimneys getting their first work of the season.

It was also the sound of any number of days playing in the woods around town, cutting through backyards and seeing what was back there in the land no one really used. Or the sound of home, when it was quiet (not often!) and the wind would get all the pine trees in the neighborhood to sway.

It was a lot for a few seconds. Then a truck out on Forest Street banged its empty trailer and it was back to now. Too bad.