How do we recall decades old memory?

[sear]

I was trying to recall an experience I had over a half-century ago, a recollection from childhood.
It got me to thinking about the process of such deliberate recollection.

Some such recollections from experience generations in the past may simply waft in on their own.
But what is the process for soliciting them deliberately.

Could it be that we try to conjure what the memory would have been like, and then sort through our memory to find a match?

Is that the same or different from the way we recall what we had for breakfast yesterday?