For the most part, I can not remember dates of notable events in my life, even when they occured in the last year.
What was this thread about again?
Oh yeah! Barry Bonds. Now don’t even let me get started on Barry Bonds…
I can remember many dates from exactly fifty years ago. 1956 was just the most wonderful coming-of-age year! I turned thirteen that July. There was this wonderful music that was a combination of the piece Moonglow and the theme from the film Picnic. It was on every record player and radio station for weeks. There are lots of dates I remember. Silly stuff.
I could tell you which day a certain young man gave me some chewing gum, what kind it was and where it is today. I’ve kept that stick of Juicy Fruit gum for fifty years. Later that month, the Andria Doria sank. I was wearing a cross containing the Lord’s Prayer around my neck. And I remember the night in September that the Chewing Gum Kid bought me a coke and I remember the phase of the moon and what skirt I wore and the color of my sweater.
I got my polio shot on December 11 that year. I walked with him downtown to get it. He wore a pink jacket with a big black snowflake on it. YIKES!
I was unpacking from a holiday in Denmark. My principal allowed me to take sick days immediately after Christmas so that I could have a longer holiday abroad.
The peculiar thing is that my ability to remember ended at about that time. Now my memory is so bad that I don’t even remember how I found the Straight Dope and began posting. It is as if I were born here.
I’m not yet 20 and I don’t remember the process of signing up for my SDMB account. I don’t remember the format of the page, what I was asked, etc.
I’m generally pretty good at remembering years, and even when I can’t remember off the top of my head, I can usually figure it out after a few seconds’ thought.
What DOES trouble me is how often I find myself saying things like, “I went to see U2 in concert a few years ago,” then pausing and realizing, “No… actually, it was 1984, which means it’s considerably MORE than a few yers ago.”
That happens a lot. “A few years ago” seems to encompass a very, very long time in my mind now.