Remembering things

We are in the middle of renovating our kitchen, and to make room, we have put the vast majority of "stuff" into a storage unit.

The renovation/building work began in September. In the November Black Friday extravaganza, I bought a dual drawer Nina airfryer - I had been managing with a microwave, slow cooker and electric steamer until then.

I knew I had bought a dual drawer airfryer in Costco about 18 months ago, but was "saving it for the new kitchen". That one was buried at the back of the storage unit. The Ninja was a really good price, and so (obviously) I couldn't not buy it.

I sent my husband up to the storage unit to retrieve something in December, and when he came back, he said "you do realise that we've got one of those Ninjas in the storage unit". I argued with him about it, saying it was probably just the box that we'd used to store other stuff in. He was adamant it was another airfryer.

I didn't believe him until he sent me a photo of it.

I have zero recollection of buying it. None at all. I have checked back on my Amazon account and can see I bought it in July of last year. Still absolutely no recollection of buying, or receiving it. Or even seeing it stored in the house before it went to the storage unit.

So I now have three dual drawer airfryers, which I do concede is overload

Memory is such a strange thing. As a perfect example: I can remember a brief interaction I had with a colleague over 40 years ago. It was a totally inconsequential and very short conversation about my new shoes! I was only at that company for 18 months (temping). I didn't know the colleague before and I haven't seen her since. Why on earth have my memory banks stored that utterly trivial detail?

Conversely, I recently found photographs of what was obviously a holiday with my late mum, an old family friend and my then very young son. They were seemingly taken in West Wales in the summer. I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it, nothing at all!

I've misremembered something and I still can't think for the life of me how!
Attending a funeral of an uncle last year I was reminded that he and his wife had moved into their property ten years before. This startled me because I can distinctly remember my Mum phoning and telling me that he had become unwell on the day they moved in. It had been extremely hot, he had drunk too much water and developed hyponatremia (over hydration). An ambulance was called and he was rushed to hospital.
All this was true but it couldn't have been my Mum who told me because she died 20 years ago. So who told me? I still have no idea....

My late husband had an amazing image memory, and could recall fine visual detail about houses we’d lived in, cars, furniture we’d owned, he could picture it all in his head. My memories are more focused on feelings, I can recall how I felt on certain days, and even remember the exact words people said to me. But there have been occasions when I’ve been shown photos of myself in younger days, and I simply cannot remember ever being there. I have a friend whose memories are solely about what she wore when, she can recall every birthday party dress from the age of 3!!

I have a friend who is a retired psychiatrist. We both worry about forgetting names, titles of books etc. She says that if you can remember the name within 24 hours, you're not dementing (yet). It's so nice when that name pops back into our head, quite reassuring really. Buy I expect I sometimes forget what I've forgotten....

It's funny, isn't it, the memories one carries from childhood and early adulthood. Different family members will have forgotten or recalled things differently.

My older sister has a phenomenal memory bank from childhood, and hers is very number-centric, if that makes any sense. She remembers dates, anniversaries of events, etc., 'the big snow-storm of 197-. It amazes me when she brings up something of which I have absolutely no recall.

But I think because all of our brains work differently, we remember what was important to us at the time. I remember where certain birds had nests that I would watch when I was a child, which would not even register in her memory because it meant nothing to her.

RosieMaw, I like your analogy of a bookshelf. The oldest books that we put on the shelf maybe registered or stuck in our brains because we had only lived 10 years at the time, so put certain memories on the shelf. After 40 or 50 years, there are so many books collected that we can't recall all of them, or where we got them!

My two good friends and I remember different things from our childhood, youth, motherhood, up to present day. We started school together at the age of 5 , so it’s almost 70 years ago, and we have seen each other regularly throughout our lives.
If one of us wants to remember something we phone, text or meet up to pick each others brains. It’s very handy 👍

Tricia2

I went into gas station and paid for the gas and then went outside got in the car and drove off-forgetting the gas.

How did they know what to charge you if you hadn’t put any fuel in your car?

My friend was sorting through some photos found amongst her late mums things She asked me if I remembered going to a party with her dressed as cowgirls aged about 15/16 I said no no memory whatsoever and neither had she Well she brought the photos to show me and neither of us had any recall of ever going to a party dressed as cow girls with cowboy hats neck scarves etc etc We couldn’t work out the venue, she had about twenty photos we couldn’t recognise anyone else in the pictures and it’s a complete mystery to both of us
But we looked as if we enjoyed it

VenusDeVillendorf

I find my memory improves when my inflammation is low.

If I eat carbs and sugar I can’t remember things.

Eating a low carb ketogenic diet has me remembering poems I learned in school!

Oh my life, this is so interesting. I read your comment and it felt like a million pennies dropping. You could be describing me.

Evidently I have a phenomenal memory, family members tell me, but to me it is normal. I can recall long ago events, and have crystal clear memories of family moments, even the conversations that took place. Almost every detail of my third birthday is in my memory, and I stunned my cousin recently by telling her what she wore to her wedding reception, which she had completely forgotten after about fifty years. I was a child at the time , but could still see her clearly, dancing with her husband and looking pretty in her pink outfit. Not always a good thing, though - there has been much unhappiness and stress, and all of this comes back with awful clarity in the small hours.

My friends laugh at me, because I can still recite part numbers for the products we bought when we worked in a large factory, but ask me what I did at the weekend I miss out half of the activities. This has been something I’ve done since childhood

U have a photographic memory for most things. Unfortunately this is something of a curse because . as well as happy memories, I can remember, in minute detail, very sad events. The only thing I know that I completely forgot ( until a childhood friend reminded me) is taking a neighbour’s dog for walks - with the said friend- and exploring old lodges and disused railway tracks. I perhaps selectively forgot these adventures because my parents wouldn’t have approved . Since the start of lockdown I have kept a diary , quite detailed, because I feared for my sanity- as did a lot of us .

I remember events from about the age of six but I'm not sure about before that because my mother used to tell my much younger sister long wonderful stories each evening. They were about myself and my brother when we were younger than 6, so I'm never quite sure whether they are stories or true memories..

M0nica mentioned “odd partial memory” which I seem to dwell in these days. 🤪

Certain incidents from long ago seem to pop up in my head at the oddest of times, but I can only remember the occasion - please don’t ask me for a lot of details! Those seem to be missing.

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

I think the memory is just a Lottery, or Lucky Dip, as we get older, and clearly from accounts on here, no 2 people are alike! I can sometimes remember odd things from school (secondary and even primary) and the youth club I went to, but whole swathes of my 20s & 30s are pretty much a blank!

I'm occasionally reminded of weddings or parties that we've attended, or trips we made on holiday, and I don't recall them at all. Other odd things I get flashbacks from, it's quite weird, and pretty much random (though the "depends what you eat" comment was interesting, may have to check that out?).

I went into gas station and paid for the gas and then went outside got in the car and drove off-forgetting the gas.

At a talk on Alzheimer’s I was once told that memory is like a bookcase- maybe an IKEA Billy Bookcase, not renowned for its sturdiness
Your oldest memories are on the bottom shelves and the bookcase fills up as you grow up and get older.
Now imagine a strong wind bowing hard at your Billy bookcase and it starts to sway a bit.
The memories /books at the top start to fall out of the shelves but the ones at the base are secure because that isn’t swaying as much.
That was the analogy with memory loss and dementia and explains why we often remember fine detail from our childhood but have no idea where we left the car keys.
Diet?
I’m not so sure. Cognitive ability- certainly.

How very odd. Over the past two days I have been going through old photos and found quite a few of me with others at events I have absolutely no recollection of, such as my Nana's 90th birthday. Try as I might I cannot recall anything at all about them yet I was definitely there. I am so glad to read this and know that it is obviously quite normal.

I don't think, Daddima, that what you describe has anything to do with aging, unless you know you remembered these things formerly.

None of us remembers everything we have always done. However, good or bad an experience was, it does not need to have made a lasting impression.

VenusDeVillendorf

I find my memory improves when my inflammation is low.

If I eat carbs and sugar I can’t remember things.

Eating a low carb ketogenic diet has me remembering poems I learned in school!

This is very interesting. I’m currently low carb/keto, but haven’t noticed any improvement in my memory. I have recurring episodes of amnesia and seem to lose a bit of memory storage each time, but mostly newer memories. I wonder if I’ll also see an improvement due to diet?

I too have a picture of me as a very little girl holding a baby chimpanzee in Harrods (I think - not entirely certain of the shop but a swanky one in London). I remember the dress I wore (pink) and that the chimp wore a nappy and clung onto me.

I was married very briefly in 1990, we split up in 1991 due to his infidelity. I swear my brain has hidden/blocked all my memories of that marriage as I have not a single memory (even bad of which I’m sure there were many) I think it must be a mechanism in my brain which is protecting me from remembering.

My DH had an incredible memory of his childhood years and of the village where he lived and so did his older brother. His younger siblings did not at all. I myself was always in trouble because we'd meet someone from the past and he'd say 'You know who this is!' and I wouldn't have a clue!

I’m so glad it’s not just me! Thank you for the reassurance 😊