Memory?

[Jimmy Higgins]

So my daughter asked me who my math teacher was... she not quite understanding that I had a lot of math teachers. So I started listing them out from first (actually can't remember my first grade math teacher at all) to eighth grade. Then I got to high school... and my Freshman math teacher's name was on the tip of my tongue (then it comes to me), but the remainder, I remember the faces, but not the names. I can't even remember my college math professors' names.

I thought it odd that I can recall most of the early teachers I had, but had trouble with high school and college. Granted, I remember most of my major classes profs. But I thought it odd, crap... I didn't know I forgot. My Chem I and II prof was... umm... my Physics III prof was...

 

[Politesse]

So my daughter asked me who my math teacher was... she not quite understanding that I had a lot of math teachers. So I started listing them out from first (actually can't remember my first grade math teacher at all) to eighth grade. Then I got to high school... and my Freshman math teacher's name was on the tip of my tongue (then it comes to me), but the remainder, I remember the faces, but not the names. I can't even remember my college math professors' names.

I thought it odd that I can recall most of the early teachers I had, but had trouble with high school and college. Granted, I remember most of my major classes profs. But I thought it odd, crap... I didn't know I forgot. My Chem I and II prof was... umm... my Physics III prof was...

You must have pretty good memory to begin with. I'm sure I couldn't name all of my elementary school teachers, let alone all of my college profs. I remember the ones who managed to teach me something useful.

 

[southernhybrid]

Here's the thing. When we are young children our brains absorb things and learn new things much easier than we do as we get older. I can still remember all of the lines of the dark humor poetry known as the "Little Willy" poems and unfortunately, I can remember many of the Bible verses that I learned as a child. I can name all of my elementary teachers, a few of my high school teachers and only a few of my college teachers, the ones that I thought were good. I'm much older than you, so these things stay with us for a long time.

What's really weird is that even people with Alzheimer's, at least in the early to moderate stages can usually remember the words to songs or poems that they learned as children, but they can't tell you what happened ten minutes ago. I'm not claiming that I understand exactly why our brains remember so many things from our early life, I'm just reassuring you that you aren't the only one that has better memories of some things that happened in early childhood, but not as many from early adulthood.

Now I will write some important poetry that has stayed with me since elementary school

Willy saw some dynamite
Didn't understand it quite
Curiosity seldom pays
As it rained Willy 7 days

Willy with a thirst for gore
Nailed his sister to the door
Mother said with humor quaint
Willy dear, don't scratch that paint

Willy pushed his sister Nell
In the family drinking well
She's still there because it kilt her
Now we have to get a filter

Now, why the hell do I remember those poems, but I can remember much of what I learned when I was an English major for 3 full years? Our brains are weird, complicated organs, especially when it comes to memory. One more thing that you made me thing of. In my opinion, although I doubt it's ever been studied, facial recognition is probably the last thing to go when it comes to dementia. I've had patients that didn't know that I was their nurse, but they obviously remembered me as a person that they knew. So, I don't think it's strange at all that you can remember faces, but not names.

 

[Brian63]

Still remember my locker combinations for each of the 3 years in junior high...At the time every kid scrolled onto them multiple times a day, but everyone else seems to have forgotten them since. They are still stuck in my head though.

Still remember my employee ID at my first job (63, hence my username) and my employee passcode too.

Have also had seizures throughout my adulthood that have wiped out much of my memories otherwise...grrrrrr....no, I am not bitter about that...ok, maybe just a bit.

 

[Tharmas]

Now I will write some important poetry that has stayed with me since elementary school

Willy saw some dynamite
Didn't understand it quite
Curiosity seldom pays
As it rained Willy 7 days

Willy with a thirst for gore
Nailed his sister to the door
Mother said with humor quaint
Willy dear, don't scratch that paint

Willy pushed his sister Nell
In the family drinking well
She's still there because it kilt her
Now we have to get a filter

Thanks for the memories My dad used to quote "Little Willys" to us.

Here's one I can't quite remember:

Willy something something sashes
Fell in the fire and burnt to ashes.
Though the room grew cold and chilly
No one cared to poke up Willy.

Also, my Dad had a different version of one of the ones you quote:

Willy with a thirst for gore
Nailed his sister to the door
Willy's always full of tricks.
Ain't he cute? He's only six.

Here's another my dad liked to recite (not a Little Willy):

I give you now Professor Twist,
a conscientious scientist.
Trustees exclaimed "He never bungles!"
and sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped by some tropic riverside
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could only smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

Looking it up, I see my father was slightly misquoting Ogden Nash.

 

[Tharmas]

Back to the OP, my earliest memories go back to when I was 3 or 3 1/2, but they are disconnected and dream-like. After I turned 4 they really start to pick up for me, and start forming part of a more coherent narrative. I can't remember all of my grade school teachers, remember a number of high school teachers (maybe because I go to class reunions) and a few college professors.

Recently I was trying to remember, unsuccessfully, the name of an author I had read maybe twenty years ago. A day or so later while brushing my teeth an unusual name popped into my head. I didn't connect it to the name I had been searching for. Instead I wondered what on earth had put this strange name into my head. Was it the name of an old rock band? Eventually, after maybe another day, it suddenly occurred to me that this was the author's name I had been searching for. As I said it was a very unusual name - Mungo Parks. But it's strange how memory works. Eventually it retrieved the data I was looking for but didn't know what to do with it or figure out why I had thought of it.

Generally I too have an easier time with numbers than with names. I still sometimes use a alphanumeric arbitrary password that I was given twenty years ago to access the web server of a company I used to work for.

 

[Toni]

I easily remember every single teacher I had in elementary school. I remember a handful from junior high because junior high was the pits. I simply never cared to remember and some I tried hard to forget. High school: I remember them all. I attended 3 different universities. I remember a handful of profs from the first two. I remember them all from the last one. The first two universities were quite large (first lecture I walked into was 400 students) and classes were fairly anonymous. The third was a middle sized university which deliberately kept (most) class sizes small--most of my lectures were under 30 people and the labs were of necessity much smaller. Typically, you knew everybody in your classes because you saw them in many of your classes. The profs knew you by name, welcomed your visits to their office hours, were happy to help with points you weren't sure about or to offer suggestions for the next step, write recommendations, suggest you for various projects, etc. So: much easier to remember them.

I remember the address of every home I lived in from the age of 6 forward. A few years ago, I realized I had (finally) forgotten the phone number of the house we lived in when I was 6 and starting first grade and was supposed to know the phone number. Since I can remember (or think I can) events from as far back as when I was 2 and 3, I am certain that it is a case of my brain no longer needing that info and realizing it no longer needed that info and letting it go.

I remember the first poems I learned on my own, because I liked them. I don't remember so well what I was compelled to memorize.

I am much better with remembering numbers than I am with remembering names--unfortunately. I remember once when I was with some friends and we were looking up something or someone in a telephone book (remember those!) and were flipping back and forth when I said, I think I saw what we want on page 76 (I even remember the page number) and the guy I was dating at the time gave me a strange look, turned to page 76 and there was exactly what we wanted, right where I said it would be. Because of this trick of my brain, I used to appear smarter than I actually was.

My theory is that the reason that people are so fond of music of whatever decade they were young and really into music is because listening to that music triggers not just memories but feelings, emotions associated with that song. I will forever associate Dead Skunk In The Middle of The Road with that afternoon a guy I was dating because I felt bad for thinking he was just not very smart or nice and everybody else kept telling me he was a great guy (I was right about him, btw. Of course) --anyway, this guy was giving me a ride home from school and that song came on and I remember thinking that it was the perfect 'theme song' to our 'relationship. And it was. You don't even need to know the lyrics--the title says it all. Our relationship was like a dead skunk in the middle of the road, stinking to high heaven. Crocodile Rock and all early 70's Elton John is associated with a boyfriend. Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover was playing when I realized my relationship with a guy I was desperately in love with was really, truly over and done with and doomed from the very beginning. Didn't stop it from being a 2 and a half break up kind of relationship, though. Another boyfriend introduced me to the joys of (god help me) Rod Stewart, before that whole Hot Legs debacle. I still like Little Faces, Faces and EARLY Rod Stewart. Pre Hot Legs. Which was just an embarrassment. Interestingly enough my husband has had relatively little influence over my taste in music. Mostly, we like different music with some overlap. Same thing with books.

I find that scents also evoke memories and strong feelings, usually good ones.

 

[Speakpigeon]

So my daughter asked me who my math teacher was... she not quite understanding that I had a lot of math teachers. So I started listing them out from first (actually can't remember my first grade math teacher at all) to eighth grade. Then I got to high school... and my Freshman math teacher's name was on the tip of my tongue (then it comes to me), but the remainder, I remember the faces, but not the names. I can't even remember my college math professors' names.

I thought it odd that I can recall most of the early teachers I had, but had trouble with high school and college. Granted, I remember most of my major classes profs. But I thought it odd, crap... I didn't know I forgot. My Chem I and II prof was... umm... my Physics III prof was...

We live simple lives as children and we are single-mindedly focused on the things immediately in front of us. As we grow up, our own mind takes a life of its own and we spread our attention between all sorts of concerns, often trivial but looking important in the moment, things we forget immediately that some other thing gets our attention.

Still, all of it might well be there, only if you could recall them. One of my favourite walk is in a very large cemetery near where I live. Looks quite like a very old private garden and more interesting than public parks. Walking past tombstones, you can't possibly not read the names. And now the forgotten names of all the people I have ever known come back, one by one, easy as pie. As if all buried here. Well, only the names had been buried, and in my memory.
EB