How Do You Remember All Those Old Stories? (Celebrating National Memory Day)

This was originally scheduled to post later in the year as one of a two-part post, but hey, it’s National World Memory Day. So, let’s move it up.

There have been two questions I’ve received quite a bit since I first started blogging…

The first was, how can you possibly have gone through all of those things? It seems like you LOOK for trouble. (Inhales deeply) Yeah, it’s been a wild life and I’ll be glad to share that later. Today I’m going to talk about the second question: How do you remember so many of your school and childhood stories?

The easy answer is, I don’t know.  Seriously.  I don’t.  For years, I honestly believed that this kind of recollection was normal for all. I mean, hey, it’s human experience. How can you NOT remember what you went through?  I really believed that until years later when I started reminiscing with old high school friends and they admitted that they had no clue what I was talking about. Others were pleasantly surprised and elated to revisit experiences they had long-since forgotten.

Simple things.  Like Greg R. hanging upside down on the parallel bars by his folded legs in gym class and losing his “grip”, so to speak. He hit his head on the cross brace, producing this loud “KLANG” sound.  He got up and walked to the gym teacher’s office, stopping every few steps to freeze and cringe, as though it kept hitting him.  That was 5th grade.

Or the little girl named Carmen, telling me she would kiss me for an hour if I ate some of the mudpie that she made.  I don’t know how long we lasted, but grandma had much to say when she walked out and caught me kissing a girl on the steps of her backyard porch, dirty lips and all.  I was 6.

Or me putting my Hot Wheels cars in the hole in the wall, positioned a few feet from the ground.  Not sure how the hole got there, but it was a perfect spot because every time my cousins came over, they kept taking my cars to play with them and I would never find them after.  Little did I realize that once they were dropped in the wall, I would never be able to reach in and down to retrieve them, ever again.  I was 3.

And yes, my friends still marvel at the fact that I can still remember their home addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays. Even what they got for several of their parties.

I spoke to a Psychology professor some time ago about the many details of my childhood that were still vivid to me. Without hesitation, he told me that I had good Autobiographical Memory. I didn’t think much about it beyond listening to his description, but these days, it seems to make sense. In short, it’s just as it sounds: a memory system comprised of the different experiences in my life. Of course, there’s much more to it, but I won’t get into that. Put simply, I can recall quite a bit.

Now I will also admit that I kept a journal for several years. Before losing them, I’d go back every once in a while, and read about incidents from my past when looking for inspiration to write a new song, usually about past loves (and I truly remember all the details of THOSE). I guess that served as a refresher. And I talk a lot (no surprise there) about the wild adventures my siblings, friends and I experienced. So, there’s that.

So, what do you do when you’ve got a head full of short movies? Like my friend Steve said, “Get it out’cho head!” Which is probably wise because as we all know, you need to make room for new memories. And I do. Problem is, the old stuff just won’t go away.

Just ask my buddy Jake, Greg R’s (the parallel bar boy) older brother. He completely freaked out in a phone conversation when I told him about my memory of him sweeping in front of Dairy Queen when my brothers, sister and I came up and said hello to him before I ordered a banana split, my brothers, large chocolate dipped cones and my sister, a Mister Misty Float. I even told him what music he was dancing to from the car in the parking lot and what he had planned for that weekend.

Mind you, this was 40 years ago.

You know the crazy thing about all of this? My short-term memory is crap. I have to ask my wife if we ate at certain restaurants (days ago), what I ordered and if I liked it. If I’m thinking about something to blog about, I have to write it down immediately because I might forget it in a matter of seconds. Then I rack my brain trying to figure out what is now on the tip of my tongue! I kid you not. I can see two consecutive movie trailers and forget the first one while I’m jotting them down on my “movies to watch” list.

And I can guarantee you that there were many things I planned to say in this article alone that won’t make it because I forgot. Oh well. At least, if it was the re-telling of a story, I wouldn’t miss a beat.

I don’t know why this is happening. It might be an early form of dementia, for all I know. Truth be told, my wife and I are seriously considering that as a possibility because I’m forgetting more and more of things that I shouldn’t. Sometimes, simple names of items and recent discussions. That’s why I use the 2Do app. My intentions and tasks go in there the minute I think of something.

I do hope I’m not losing my memory though. The older memories are still here, but the details are beginning to get just a tad fuzzy. But I know that’s normal for old age.

---

Ok, you’ll love this. My wife called me down for dinner and I thought about something cool to say while eating.

Yup. I forgot it.

---

Anyway, no matter what, as long as I can remember to type, I’m going to use my blog to record almost everything, glorious or shameful. It doesn’t matter. They’re memories, so I’m not worried about what people think. They already happened some time ago.

You? You get to enjoy them. People often say I should have my own show. Who knows? Maybe if I get famous someday, we can circle back and put all of this in a TV show or movie. A lot of it is already in the book I’m writing. Yeah, coming soon…

In the meantime…

…what the hell was I talking about?

---

Like what you read? Leave a comment in the section below. And be sure to sign up at the bottom for email notification of future blog posts from Kenny’s Camera, Cooking & Crazy Confessions at ZootsBlogSpot!