Memoirs
I started reading Patrick Stewart's book, Making It So. I haven't gotten very far because I also got a library book to read (Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past by Brett Popplewell); and I am going on a trip soon via airplane and I don't plan on bringing a heavy hardcover book. But, I digress.
What struck me in the first few chapters of Stewart's book is how detailed his memories of childhood are. He writes vivid descriptions of his boyhood home and of some of the more memorable events. But he's not the only memoir author who remembers things so far back. These entries "strike" me because I have difficulty recalling a lot of memories from when I was younger.
I can definitely describe my childhood home in great detail. Actually, the way Stewart described his home made me want to try that as a writing exercise another time. Anyway - I can do that, and I can probably recall some memories from when I was young, but a lot of them are surface-level and not to the level of detail you find in a memoir. I could probably tell you about a memory in a short paragraph.
My wife often asks me to tell her a story, and I have trouble bringing up a memory "on command", as it were. For me, stories from memory pop up in my head with certain triggers: something I see or smell or touch reminds me of a memory of the past, and so I tell her right away - "this reminds me of..."
I feel like I'm the only person in the world with this problem. Do I just have a bad long term memory? Is it a result of my epilepsy? But I've always had trouble recalling past events at the drop of a hat. And certain events and memories come bubbling to the surface more often than others. For example, I can always remember what we did for my 10th birthday party (we rented our church's gymnasium and played floor hockey).
And, see, from that I just remembered a few more details about things I did in and around the church. Small memories, nothing too specific. Although there was that one time we had a sleepover with the Youth Group and I brought a radio so I could tune in to the radio broadcast of a TV channel and hear the Sunday night cartoons (Simpsons, South Park, etc.). I don't remember why that channel came over the radio, but it was always fun to tune into that.
As you can see, some memories related to a story I told popped up as I was writing about it. That's how my recall works. I feel alone in that regard. It would be nice to know if I'm on an island or if other people work that way.
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