I am 39, my son is 5. Recently, I was talking to another parent about children’s toys, and she asked if I knew the game “Perfection”. I said I didn’t, but I knew the song from a commercial in my childhood. It goes like this:
When you’re into Perfection, you can’t be slow.
You’ve got to be quick, 'cause here’s how it goes.
Press the plunger down, start the timer.
Put the pieces in place, don’t be slow!
In Perfection, you’ve got to move out fast, move out fast
Because the pieces pop up before you put in the last.
And that’s Perfection.
This commercial has probably been off the air for more than 30 years. I never owned the toy and I’m pretty sure I never had an obsessive desire to own it. I didn’t force myself to memorize this song against the unlikely event that I should be asked to recite it, and I didn’t even realize I remembered it until she mentioned it. It wouldn’t have surprised me to hear that the toy no longer existed.
So, the obvious question is: why is this still in my head?
My son also has this disturbing ability. If you ask him “do you remember the last time we were here?”, he will tell you where we stopped and what everyone had for lunch.
I have a theory that children up to a certain age don’t know what’s important, so they make an effort to learn everything. In most of us, the unimportant is eventually forgotten.
Who else has stories like this? Are we just odd? Why am I not a nuclear physicist? Comments please.
I remember the phone number of the house where I lived when I was a kid, which we moved out of in 1974. I have had no need whatsoever for this information in almost 27 years…522-0215.
You’re not a mutuant and neither is your kid. You both seem to have the same gene myself and my son also share. It’s the “useless trivia” gene, or the abiblity to recall inane shit that is totally meaningless but forget to look where you are walking to avoid injury. Hopefully they will be out of the lab animal testing phase for the drug to cure this soon, but as soon as they do all games of “Trivial Pursuit” will be recalled.
I can still remember the opening line of “The Outsiders”… never made an effort to remember it, but I did read it a lot when I was younger. “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had two things on my mind; Paul Newman and a ride home.” And I still remember the phone number at the gas station my Dad owned until I was 8 or 9 (363-7669) Things I hadn’t thought about for years, but remember without effort none-the-less.
The strange stuff always seems to get stuck in my brain, but the important stuff (like how to do my primary job after I’ve been pulled onto another project for 3 months) seems to go in and be lost forever.
Theif’s prolly right… you’re a mutant. It’s okay, were a fun bunch of mutants.
Anyway, I remember the theme song from Pinwheel. I deplored this show with every fiber in my being as a child, and made every effort to “avoid” it. Still, somehow the theme has been filed in my brain along with “The Smurfs”, “The Gummi Bears”, “DuckTales”, “TMNT”, “The A-Team”, “Knight Rider”, and every other theme from every show I saw as a child…ad infinitum.
I believe this dorky game commercial began to air in the early 70’s.
It haunts me to this day.
**If you've got trouble, wait don't run.
This kind of trouble is lots of fun.
Pop-a-matic, pops the dice.
Pop a six and you move twice.
Race your men around the track,
And try to send the others back.
That's Pop-a-matic Trouble!**
(It gets worse - the nightmare continues)
**Watch the dice in the plastic bubble,
It pops you in and out of trouble.
Here comes sister, look out Jack,
You've got trouble, you'll go back.
The game is fun for Dad and Mother,
And Sis can trouble here mean ol' brother.
That's Pop-a-matic Trouble!
By Irwin.**
Now this I can remember from when I was 6 years old.
Yet, I can’t remember what I was doing 2 hours ago.
I recently got on an SNES and started playing Super Metroid, which I haven’t played in at least a year. The level (there is really only one huge level, in a sort of hub format) is really huge, I knew every little nook and cranny of it. I was able to get every little secret, and remember exactly where to go when I got each item.
On the other hand, I just recently got my drivers’ permit and started driving. The other day I was driving down to a local thrift store, which is about a mile away, and which I have ridden to many times and driven to at least once…and I couldn’t figure out exactly how to get to it. I missed the turn.
I also know Pi to the 27th digit, but can’t remember my dad’s phone number.
