Just about anything can trigger an old memory. I overheard someone talking about ravens yesterday and it brought back memories of a book I read in my childhood that had the word “raven” in the title. I probably haven’t thought about the book in over three decades. It’s funny sometimes what can bring back in old memory.
Here’s Amazon link to the book in question:
I’m not a celebrity but I can recall many specific conversations from 20-30 years ago and not just significant ones. Mine are usually triggered by something, like a song or a new conversation, though. Ex: I was talking to my best friend the other night about cars and asked him if he remembered that time we went to a Toyota dealership in 1999 and had a conversation with a salesman and what was said. He claims he remembered, too. I’m not just sitting around thinking about everything that’s ever happened to me. However, if it was something worth remembering I can probably recall close to verbatim plus the location, smell, probably weather and what I was wearing.
I think this is where a collaborator comes in handy. Someone who has made a study of your life, and can prompt you: “hey tell me about the time back in the 50s when you played with Mingus and Charlie Parker at Birdland…” or some such. Which unleashes the flow of (accurate or not) memories.
If you’ve been a celebrity or had any kind of public life in the last 30 years or so, you could probably look up stuff about yourself online and just take it from there.