Thursday, October 23, 2014
Mem'ries ... light the corners of my mind ... (OR NOT)
I was talking to a woman the other day with whom I went to high school, and while there was no love lost between us back then, we have become friend-ish lately, and it's funny how that happens, isn't it?
ANYway, she was talking about some trip the select choir took to Canada, back in high school, and I'm just, like, sorta listening, and then she's, like, "Don't you remember? You went, too!"
And I'm, like, "---"
"You were totally there!," she said. "I remember you being on that trip!"
I remember being in the select choir. (It wasn't THAT select, obviously, if I was in it.) I do not remember this particular woman being in that choir, and I have no memory of that trip whatsoever.
And honestly? A LOT of my high school existence has faded out of memory.
Oh, sure, I remember some of it, and I remember going to Florida with the marching band, and I remember some of the boys I dated, and I remember my first after-school part-time job, but most of it?
Nope. Gone.
It just ... wasn't that important, in the grand scheme of things. I mean, sure, it was important at the TIME, but over thirty years have passed, for Pete's sake. I can't remember EVERYthing.
Except I'm pretty sure that some people can. Remember, that is. Facebook has a great (or evil) way of reconnecting you with high school classmates, and some of the kids I went to school with (now grown adults, of course), can go on and on and ON about this dance and that teacher and this field trip and I'm just, like ...
okay? If you say so? Was it fun?
I mean, I'm sure that some of it is due to the fact that I went to a big high school. There were six hundred kids in my graduating class, so obviously I'm not going to have the same memories as all of my classmates. But to un-remember an entire field trip to Canada with the choir? Seems kind of ... odd.
Was it the drugs I took? I mean, I didn't do a LOT of drugs in high school, I was a good kid, but I certainly kept pace. Lots of alcohol, some weed, some coke but not too much because nobody knew anybody who had it on a regular basis - just the same stuff all of my peers were doing. (It was the seventies, after all. Nobody'd even HEARD of Just Say No back then - it hadn't been invented yet.)
So now I'm curious. How well do you remember your high school experience? All of it? Some of it? Every detail? None of it?
Enquiring minds want to know.
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9 comments:
In college (graduated in 1965) there was a tight group of six of us who spent all of our free time in the Husky Lounge playing Pinochle or Oh Hell or Spades. About ten years ago one of the guys from that group and I (we called him "The Rabbi") found each other through Classmates. Same general thing. He was reminiscing about parties and other things that had happened (Remember when...?) and I remembered next to none of it. I remembered one occasion when Kermit (nickname) had zipped "himself" into his pants and couldn't get loose, and The Rabbi drove him to the ER, and since what they were going to do was considered surgery, the hospital wouldn't operate without Kermit's parents' permission, which was a very awkward phone call, which The Rabbi had to make because Kermit was too drunk to make any sense. How could anyone forget that? But The Rabbi didn't remember it at all. The Rabbi also didn't remember our group trip to the NYC World's Fair. A whole 4-day weekend.
I guess it's pretty common. Some things impress us in some way and stick, and other things just slide on by.
Hola Rocky!
Just fyi I am not ignoring you! It has been a WEEK and just when I thought things would calm down, I have an ant invasion in my house AND tonight my laptop appears to have gone kaput! Hoping very hard that the replacementwifi adapter I ordered using my *phone* turns out to fix it!
hahaha hola spiff! Glad to know you're still alive and kicking. Keep me posted.
and ~~Silk, I am relieved to know that I'm not alone on the memory thing. I can still remember the words to songs I sang with that choir (Choose Something Like a Star, anyone?), but I can't remember that trip.
and I hope poor Kermit made a full recovery.
I remember a lot, but I guess I wouldn't know what I didn't remember ...
I recently reminded a friend about something that happened in junior high. She didn't remember, but it was about her--I was just a witness, but it was something she did. I guess that means I have a good memory. Or at least a select one. Names of people are fading. I graduated high school 16 years ago.
Kate, "select" is the right word. Evidently the brain remembers what it wants to, and chucks the rest. Gotta clear out the ol' hard drive.
Kermit got a mini-circumcision, and nobody let him forget that it was The Rabbi who took him to the hospital. Which makes it all the more surprising that The Rabbi didn't remember it.
I think to remember something, we need "hooks" to other thoughts or experiences. If there are no hooks, it's there, but we have no path to access it. I think that's where a lot of deja vu comes from.
~~Silk, I like the idea of "hooks". And I'll bet different people have different ones - that's why two people can share the same experience, and only one will remember.
Of course, I don't think Kermit will ever forget. :)
I once started a job and a new co-worker introduced himself to me saying we were in the same class at school. Absolutely no recollection of him. I told him not to take it personally that I did my best to forget all about HS.. he laughed and totally understood (our class was horrible)
Yeah, Tails, some things are best left forgotten ...
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