I have several photos of me as a child, most of which I recall being taken. I often wonder, though, whether I would remember them were it not for the fact that I saw the prints not long after they'd been developed. If you see a photograph within a couple of weeks or so after it was snapped, it's really no great feat of memory to remember the occasion it was captured on camera as the print is a reminder of the event. However, if I were to see a photo for the first time 20 or 30 years after it was taken, I'm uncertain as to whether I'd remember my presence or participation when it happened. What I'm suggesting is that memories of some things often need reminding of at an early stage, otherwise they 'shrivel and die' on the vine without ever 'flowering', never having been 'watered'. (Figuratively speaking, that is.)
That may mean, of course, that every subsequent time after the first that we look at a photo and remember it being taken, we're not actually recalling the event itself, but rather the memory of having been reminded of it the first time we saw the photo, then the second, then the third, etc. In other words, the 50th time you look at a photograph and remember, you're remembering the 49th recollection of the event (which was a memory of the 48th), not the actual event itself. A 50th-generation memory, so to speak. Has the memory deteriorated in the same way that a 50th-generation copy of a video would, or am I pushing the analogy too far?
Any thought, Crivvies, or am I talking my usual load of old pants?
6 comments:
I have a few photos of my brother and myself in a part wen I was about 9 or 10 years old and I can’t recall where it was taken, I have fleeting memory of the event but that’s it. Sadly neither my mum , dad or brother are around anymore to enlighten me. I also have a few photos of myself at parties/nights out when I was in my mid to late 20’s and strangely I have little recollection of those events either !!! 😊
Just so long as they're not photos you could be blackmailed into buying the negatives of, McS, you have nothing to worry about. What was it back then, Buckfast or Old English? (Or was it Old England? I can never remember, not ever having drank the stuff.)
Lol I never drank that gutrot awful stuff .
Isn't it all gut-rot awful stuff? Glad I've never drank alcohol, McS. However, don't think I'm a wimp because I don't touch booze - I drink my milk, cola, tea and coffee out of a dirty cup. (I'm a real hard nut, me! Well, at least the 'nut' part's true.)
Kid - Memory's supposedly reconstructive - so you're on the money!
One of my earliest memories is my father taking my brother & myself (aged 4), to a fete at our local castle. At the fete, there was a karate demonstration, with men breaking boards.
For decades, this memory's been dream-like. However, after my mother passed away, I found my father's old colour-slides, in their bedroom. Amazingly, there was a colour-slide of this very karate demonstration - corroborating my dream-like memory!
I also remember an ice-cream van, at the fete, with a picture of a viking iced-lolly. The colour slides do show a Whistons ice-cream van at the fete, but the part of the van with the lollies depicted is out of shot. Damn!
Phillip
I think some memories may be more solid, depending on the impression they made at the time, while others may need a bit of reconstruction whenever we think of them. I know that when I re-read a a paragraph or chapter in a book, the images stirred in my mind are exactly the same as they were on my first reading 10, 15, or 20 years before, even though they may not tally exactly (and never did) with the author's description. (If that makes any sense.)
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