Forty-odd years ago I lstened to "Wait A Minim" (South African/English satirical review) and was overwhelmed by it. Over the years I would sing to myself bits and pieces that I remembered. Last year I received a copy of the album, and found that my memories were quite accurate, but the songs sounded somehow thinner. My memory seemed to have endowed them with some kind of bigger orchestration than they actually had. Or maybe just that in memory they were more mythic than anything real could possibly be. I still loved the album; it was just somehow a little less than it had been. I had the samw experience with the Clancy Brothers' "The Boys Won't Leave The Girls Alone".

On the other hand...

When I was young I had occasion to hike the Eagle Creek Trail near Bonneville Dam in Oregon. I remembered it as incredibly lush and beautiful, with waterfalls too many to name and thick, soft vegetation everywhere under the big trees. After a 40-year hiatus I went back to it about three years ago, and it was even more beautiful than I remembered.