# What have you memorized, intentionally or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2023, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972 "2023-04-20T13:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/41 "2023-04-20T18:24:14Z")
I still remember the license plate number of my first car even though I sold it about 35 years ago. I wonder if there is away to find out what happened to it by using the plate number? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/42 "2023-04-20T18:25:31Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > How about equations & formulas? The Quadratic Formula is burned in my brain. Me too. You could wake me up at night anytime from my deepest dreams and ask me for it, and could come up with the quadratic formula, also the binomial formulas, trigonometric formulas and a couple of basic formulas from electronics and general physics. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/43 "2023-04-20T18:25:38Z")
Nothing so high falutin" as what you all have memorized, however, aside from a couple of phone numbers from childhood, the one thing that I memorized (off of tv no less) is a tongue twister for Peter Piper Pizza. 4 decades (and a little bit more) ago when I was a knee high vaderling, if you could recite it back to the counter person at the pizza place you got a free pizza. Is Peter Piper Pizza still around in other parts of the country? ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/44 "2023-04-20T18:28:38Z")
- Loads of Beatles and Kinks lyrics - Marc Anthony’s speech from _Julius Ceasar_ (“Friends, Romans, Countryman…”). Performed an greatly abridged version of the play in 8th grade. - My and my wife’s SSNs, but none of my childrens. - Every landline I’ve ever had, except for the ones in the dorms in college. I’ve forgotten those. - An obscene mnemonic from high school biology for remembering taxonomy order - The license plate of my first car, driven between 1983 and 1988. Can’t remember my wife’s current plate number. - The names and release order of all James Bond movies and all Japanese Godzilla movies ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/45 "2023-04-20T18:31:21Z")
I was just trying to decide whether I could use a smaller cookie cutter to get more scones out of a recipe, and I used the only geometric formula I ever remembered to calculate the different areas! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/46 "2023-04-20T18:39:56Z")
> [@X.L.Lent](#): > > I still remember the license plate number of my first car even though I sold it about 35 years ago. 45 years ago my first car license plate was EGC-743. I recently had to give my license plate number to a parking lot dude. I said, “EGC-743”. Later, my gf asked me why I knew my license plate and I explained that it was from my first car. It was easier to give _that_ plate than to walk to my car and read my current one. ---
**Author:** ![TruePisces](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/truepisces/32/13628_2.png) [@TruePisces](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruePisces)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/47 "2023-04-20T18:43:48Z")
I’m not going to count lyrics to songs because there are far, far too many. I will say these things are still stuck in my mind: - The opening line of _The Outsiders_ - The Robert Frost poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (Both of these are from my absolute love of the book when I was younger.) - Both my telephone number when I lived in New York (from birth to 15) and my telephone number when I lived in Florida (from 15 until around 22). Both were in use for far longer than I lived there but I haven’t had to use either one in the last 15 years. - My library card number. When I was working a background check job many years ago, we could listen to audio books through the library. I had to sign in to my account many, many times. Now it’s quicker for me to type my number in than it is for me to find and scan my card. - The address of my first two apartments. This was close to 30 years ago, and the apartments aren’t there anymore. But I do still remember those numbers. There are also a variety of birthdays and anniversaries that I have memorized, but that’s because if I left it to Hubby, nothing would get remembered. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/48 "2023-04-20T19:37:32Z")
I remember the license plate numbers of the cars my parents had when I was growing up. Why, I have no idea. I never had to use them. I don’t know the license plate numbers of the 4 cars I currently own. When I was in the second grade my family lived on a remote farm in northern Montana. They had a radio system of some sort that could communicate between the farm, the house in town (20 miles away), and any of the tractors/pickups/4-wheelers that had the special radio installed. It looked like a CB radio but you had to use a call sign when you radioed someone, and to this day, 35 years later, I still remember the call sign: KNEA625. I don’t think I ever used the radio so I must have memorized it from listening to other people use it. I remember my driver’s license number despite only using it once a year, to file my taxes. Interestingly, I can’t for the life of me remember song lyrics. Or movie lines, with the exception of the occasional Simpsons quote (“wait a minute… this sounds like rock and/or roll!”) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/49 "2023-04-20T19:45:12Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh, also “The Cremation of Sam McGee” That was a piece I used in speech competitions when I was about 12. I’ve had a fondness for Robert Service’s cheesy goodness ever since. I can sing the _Maverick_ theme song. > [@dirtball](#): > > I still remember the landline number my wife had when I met her in 1986. I can remember my grandmother’s phone number that she had until 1958. It was a landline, duh: GR9-3939 > [@commasense](#): > > We did 10x10, although I understand that lots of people learned 12x12. We did 12x12 (times tables), and I won a prize for memorizing them all first in the class. A statue of the BVM. Guess what kind of school I attended? > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Thus it is that 45 years later, I can still recite, in Middle English, the first fourteen lines of _The Canterbury Tales_, the prologue that begins, “Whan that Aprille, with his shoures soote…” Me, too, but that was for my college Chaucer class. We didn’t have AP classes when I was in high or junior high school. Oh, and when I got out of college, I changed jobs three times in about as many months, so I had my DL number memorized and still do. Using it as a pswd is a great idea! ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/50 "2023-04-20T20:12:50Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > Like any good Canadian, I have **not** memorized the lyrics to our national anthem. Usually about line three or four we starting humming and sort of lip-syncing and throwing in the odd word we can sort of remember. We must be of different generations…I and most of my cohort still know all the lyrics to “O Canada” in both the English and French versions, and if we’re feeling saucy, the one they used to trot out for school assemblies that switches to French for part of it then back to English for the climax. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/51 "2023-04-20T20:20:26Z")
When I was in high school chorus, we sang a song that listed the 50 states in alphabetical order. I can do that without even singing the song these many years later. I can recite the “Tears in Rain” monologue from Blade Runner. I know my credit card number from ordering so much online since Covid. I still remember my driver’s license number from the days when you had to put that on a check. I’m very good with birthdays. I remember some from my friends in high school I haven’t seen since then. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/52 "2023-04-20T20:30:54Z")
Likely the very first locker combination I ever had: 12 to the right, 24 to the left, 36 to the right. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/53 "2023-04-20T20:33:58Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > We must be of different generations… Who knows 🙂 , I’m 63 yrs old ---
**Author:** ![TruePisces](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/truepisces/32/13628_2.png) [@TruePisces](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruePisces)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/54 "2023-04-20T20:34:54Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > When I was in high school chorus, we sang a song that listed the 50 states in alphabetical order. I can do that without even singing the song these many years later. I’d forgotten about that one. I sang it in middle school. I also know the Greek alphabet thanks to a song a Zeta friend taught me. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/55 "2023-04-20T20:35:03Z")
I can (or used to be able to) sing the Canadian national anthem, because I had season tix to the L.A. Kings for a number of years. We always sang along because it was easier to sing than the SSB and fun to sing! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/56 "2023-04-20T20:42:29Z")
Pi = 3.1415926 My high school chemistry teacher said “If i call you up in the middle of the night, 30 years from now, and ask you ‘What is Avogadro’s Number?’, you will say ‘6.02 x 10^23’.” Two mnemonics for the color bands on a resistor (the politically correct one they wanted us to use, and the politically incorrect one we actually used). Have not used any of those in 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/57 "2023-04-20T20:48:21Z")
Aside from numerous song lyrics, poems, SS #s, various pre-cel telephone numbers, addresses I’ve lived at and other necessary stuff, the weirdest things I’ve memorized are the batting averages of about 100 or more players in MLB in the 1966 season, from having played hundreds of Strat-o-Matic games that feature those stats prominently. I may not be good for anything else, but if you wake me in the middle of the night and ask me “Joe Torre’s average for 1966” you’ll get “.315” out of me right quick. Sad but true. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/58 "2023-04-20T20:51:33Z")
45 years ago, I worked at a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. The register had keys you could press to list the desired condiments when an order was placed. I still remember the layout: MA LE TO PI CP RE KE ON MU Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato Pickle, COMP (Ketchup, Onion, Mustard, Pickle), Relish Ketchup, Onion, Mustard. I have to close my eyes and repeat them in order to get the layout right, because the menu listed them as Mayo, Ketchup, Pickle, Onion, Tomato, Lettuce, Mustard, Relish, COMP. COMP got its own shortcut because that combination of toppings was so popular. Phone numbers: Well, I know our home phone, and I know my and my husband’s cell phones. I need to look up the kids’ numbers, and the parents. I still remember the phone number of the house I grew up in, and its exchange (KIngsley, as the first 2 digits were 54). We never talked about the exchange concept, it was pretty much not used at all, but someone once baffled me by saying their number was “K I 12345” (or whatever it was). Oh, and I remember an office phone I had in the early 2000’s - mainly because its first 3 digits were repeated in reverse, followed by another digit - e.g. 456-6541. That served me well a few years ago when we were trying to get a mortgage, and the bank dug up all sorts of company / phone number info potentially related to us, and I had to explain why I hadn’t told them about each one of those pieces of info. Like why I hadn’t mentioned Eastman Kodak as an employer (because the former owner of our house had worked for them, so it had nothing to do with me). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/59 "2023-04-20T21:33:30Z")
All the U.S. presidents. The alphabet backwards. I used to know every Oscar Best Picture winner and year, but I haven’t practiced enough and lost some of it. Same with international capital cities. For balance, I’m not 100% certain of all my nieces and nephews’ names. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/60 "2023-04-20T21:33:35Z")
Nitpick: 6.02 **2** x 10^23. And I have used it to calculate useless stuff in my mind, like how many molecules of alcohol I was drinking that evening). Apart from that: Pi to 15 decimals (used to be more), e to 15 decimals (same), several telefone numbers that no longer exist (good for passwords and PINs), poems (Antonio Machado, Pablo Neruda, Goethe, Christian Morgestern - and the last paragraph of the introduction to his [Galgenlieder](https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Galgenlieder)! One single completely bonkers sentence, I still find it hilarious (hey, @EinsteinsHund, check it out if you don’t know it, I have a hunch that you would love it too), Joachim Ringelnatz…) and lots of songs’ lyrics (Beatles, Serrat, Victor Jara, Lluís Llach, Leonard Cohen…). The first two pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude (in Spanish). The first row of the periodic table including the absurd mnemonic rule I made up to do so (Lirio BEllo Besa Conmigo No Oses Falaz - Neon), though it makes no sense at all and is not even good, as Bello and Besa overlap and Neon is not even mnemonic but the real word, still it works for me). Now I wonder what I don’t remember that I know by heart. Oh, yes: physics and math formulas. Not a lot, but several. And the table up to 9x9, but only in Spanish. My granny hammered that into me. And irregular English verbs, my mother hammered that into me. ETA: What I don’t know and never knew: not a single prayer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972.md?page=4)