How well do you remember? What do you remember?
Jeruba just told me that I clearly remember my best friend Janet: her appearance, her personality, her birthdate, and the full address where I wrote to her for at least two years after she moved away from my street when we were both eight. I remember the name of every girl in my college freshman dorm and which room each was in. I remember the names of my landlord’s six children, in order, at the house I lived in 35 years ago. I can probably still name a third of the kids in my first-grade class, even though I was never in the same class with any of them again. I can even describe the dress Virginia Lyons wore the day she got sent home from school. I don’t know why.
First grade? I think there are maybe two people I would remember from all of high school. I certainly have no idea what happened to anyone. There’s only two teachers names that I remember from grade school. I don’t remember anybody’s name for very long. I don’t even bother to pay attention when I’m introduced. My brain doesn’t work that way.
I can’t remember the names of things, either. I don’t remember the names of statistical techniques I use, or of singers or other musicians, and I don’t remember all kinds of words any more. I know what I mean and I know there’s a word for it, and thank God for dictionaries because I wouldn’t recover any of those words, otherwise. You have no idea how many times I turn to a dictionary while writing my answers here.
I do remember what things do and how things work. I may not know what to call it, but I can describe what it does, and everyone else knows what I mean, and they tell me the word. That’s about it. I barely remember events. The past is blank to me, unless I look at pictures or pick up one of the many memory objects in my possession. Maybe I’m the ultimate infogeek. I don’t bother to remember anything any more. I trust the internet to be able to retrieve it for me. Maybe I’d remember more if there were no internet. Dunno.
So what are the strengths and weaknesses (if any) of your memory? What kinds of things do you remember, and what kinds of things do you forget?
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Up until my mid-20’s, I used to remember unique, specific details of my childhood, stories from as young as 2. They were vivid memories. To tell them felt like reliving an authentic, first-hand experience (primary resource). Since my mid-20’s, I’ve noticed the retelling of those memories feels like I’m recounting a story (secondary resource). Memories are no longer as vivid; however, I feel more present to my everyday life. I’m no longer holding onto my memories like a steal trap, as one who feared losing my story. I allow memories and information to float through my mind. This allows me the freedom to live in the moment, to enjoy the happy surprise of a memory, and to collect new stories. I believe when I allow memories to come to me on their own, as opposed to requiring them to exist, then I am reminded at the right time – when it serves some purpose to instruct, comfort, heal, etc.
I used to be able to remember nearly everything in fairly great detail, and then about 4 months ago I suffered some pretty bad trauma to my head which resulted in some of my brain mass dying in noticeable amounts almost immediately. Memory isn’t so great now.
You described me @wundayatta. It is very hard for me to remember names. I recognize faces very well, but I need to repeat a name ten times to remember it. I know the songs I like, but I couldn’t tell you the album they were on or repeat any lyrics. I only remember holidays, special occasions and vacations from my childhood. I wonder if I remember those times only because I have photos.
What I am good at remembering are numbers. I know my husband’s social security number, all our pin numbers, my phone number when I was ten, my best friend’s phone number when she was ten, every birthdate of family members, my driver’s license number, my account number with utilities, my routing number and account number with the bank. Strange.
Er…. What was the question again?
I remember a lot of things from the last millennium quite well, but I’ve felt like a dial-up modem in the last ten years. Harder to access info, needing to hear or see things two or more times before they “set”. Still trying to remember why you piss me off, sometimes, @wundayatta !!! ;-) I’m still blaming chemo brain, but I’m sure middle age as a hand in it, too… Wait…what was I saying?
Remember : Good stuff
Forget : Bad Shit
How to stay shiny & happy!
The earliest memory I have is my pre-school graduation. I was about four. I remember the most insignificant little things about an event, and I usually remember what people say more than anything else about a time. I’m good at remembering numbers and peoples’ names. People say I have a good memory. I think I have a good long-term memory, but if I am told to go in the kitchen for something, sometimes when I reach the kitchen, I can’t remember what I was supposed to go in there for.
I have a really hard time remembering people’s names. But the memories of flavors, like the baked macaroni and cheese that I used to get at the Holland House Cafeteria when I was 3 is so vivid that it makes my mouth water even now, as I’m thinking about it. In addition to tastes (Shakey’s pizza in the 1960’s, my grandmother’s geen jello and cottage cheese salad with pineapple, and smoked cheese samples from Hickory Farms) I also remember smells. Some of my favorites are the scent of pine needles and oak leaves that were always on the ground, crunching underfood, in the yard at my grandmother’s house. Sometimes, when I’m out in the rural areas where I live, I will get a fleeting waft of that smell and it almost makes me crazy with joy. I also recall with fondness the scent of my Uncle’s workshop. It had the great combination smells of engine oil, sawed wood, WD-40 and turpentine. The same goes for the combined scents of a wood campfire with coffe boiling and bacon cooking. It instantly transports me to the campground where my father used to take my brother and I when we were little kids. And the other thing that I can recall is weird little sounds like the sound of glass Christmas balls rolling across the table and gently bumping, and the tinkling sound of the capiz shell wind chimes my parents had on their Hawaiian themed screen porch, and the sound of the windshield wipers on my Dad’s Corvair station wagon. They always seemed to be saying, “twitchy woo, twitchywoo.”
Memory is selective in many ways. For instance, I remember a lot of things from when I was younger…also, I can tell you about just about every major snowstorm in my past, including day of the week it started on, etc. (I’m a bit of a snow freak, lol!)
There’s a guy I really like right now, and I can describe just about every encounter I have had with him over the past 15 months or so, down to exactly how our conversations went, funny stuff he said or did, body language, etc.
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