Sunday, June 22, 2014

Superior Autobiographical What?

     A phenomenon for sure, and very rare, occurring in only a few of hundreds of millions.  I'm willing to concede that total memory recall does exist in extraordinarily exceptional people, though I do not believe that Marylu Henner is one of them.  I would expect that a person possessing such an ability would be such a remarkable being that their abilities would be put to use in some deep and dedicated manner that would not readily transfer to appearances on television talk shows where their astoundingly superior memory is tested by the host's throwing out a "random" date and asking what  day of the week it fell on.  Or else  the menu question: "What did you have for dinner on August 7, 1987?"  Well, I had barbecued ribs.  How about you?  
    Be that as it may, I have similar memory recall of many people and events from my past: it happens all the time where I have a crystal-clear recall of a certain happening, though it never includes the date, or even the season of the year, unless it had bearing  on what happened.  Likewise what I was wearing, or what I'd eaten that day.  And I suppose the memory-time would probably comprise only a fraction of a several millionth span.  Moreover, I don't think there could exist any confirmation of the memory.  E.G. Our first grade teacher had a Balloon Man statue encased in her glass-fronted bookcase.  One day, another class, probably third grade, was paraded in to see the statue.  They seemed like big kids and I didn't know why they were there.  My memory extends just so far.  The third grade teacher had in her room, I was to find out a few years later, a globe of the earth, about the size of a basketball, or maybe a little smaller.  She warned anyone who came near it to be very careful because they would have to pay for it if they broke it, and the cost was $35.  That was such a  terrifying thought, the amount being more than my family's household budget for a whole week, that I stayed far away from the entire area where the globe sat.
      In junior high, a classmate revealed she had observed that the boy who sat in the seat in front of her had worn the same socks for 2 consecutive weeks.  When I mentioned that fact to her years ago, she had no memory of it.  On class picture day, which occurred every 2 years then, (because who would need a picture of their child every single year; they don't change that much), the teacher had her picture taken then also.  When she announced she would keep her picture to scare away the rats in her basement, I totally believed her.  I can venture to say with confidence that not one of these mundane memories which are stuck in my head forever, along with thousands of other snippets, were ever recalled by any of the others present, not for longer than the time of occurrence.
       I can recall a college professor presenting his side profile to our economics class and asking if his nose looked stereotypically ethnic. It did not, being short and straight.  I can't say what day of the week it was, though it would have been either Monday, Wednesday or Friday, because economics classes were 3-hour credits and met on those days, where the softer, 2-credit classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays. 
      I have some vivid snapshot-memories of people from the past, some of whom I hardly knew, who would have been surprised to be so remembered, assuming they had any inkling of who I was.  I have never been reminded by another person of any glimpse they recall  of my intrusions into their stores of memory, and am pretty sure that none exist.  I think I would sense it if someone were conjuring up a memory of something I had done or said, or even been involved in.  The past is dead; let it rest.

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