But not these two...
Memory is a funny thing, isn't it? I've written before about how we sometimes don't realise we've seemingly forgotten something until we're reminded on seeing it again that we really hadn't forgotten it at all. We just hadn't thought about it in some time, which isn't quite the same as forgetting, even though the effect is pretty much the same. All we've really done is forgotten to remember it in a while - or perhaps forgotten how to remember it - until sight, taste, or smell of it reignites the memory at the back of our mind and it explodes in our consciousness once more.
Here's an example. I've told you previously about a Bible my mother bought me back around 1971 or early '72. A mere 4 or 5 years later (though it would've seemed much longer than that at the time), said Bible having disappeared into limbo at some indeterminate stage, I spied its twin in a bookshop and decided to buy it in order to revisit the wonderful illustrations it contained and reconnect with my past. The Bible had 15 pictures and I recalled every one with stunning clarity.
What I didn't realise though, was that my original copy had contained 17 illustrations, but it never occurred to me that two pictures were absent as I just assumed that my original copy likewise had only 15 illos. Recently I discovered the truth when I saw a similar copy to mine on eBay, but I didn't buy it as the cloth cover was blue instead of the ruby red that mine had been. Instead, I bought an even earlier copy (with 17 illustrations), a Moroccoette, yapp, gilt-edged edition which came in a slipcase.
Remember, I hadn't seen two of the pics in 47 years or so, but I recognised them the second I saw them, to such an extent that it seemed I'd last laid eyes on them only a couple or so weeks back, not nearly 5 decades ago. Yet had I not seen them both again, I'd likely have continued in blissful ignorance of their existence for the rest of my life. Strange, eh? I just can't imagine not noticing if two other pictures had been omitted instead, so familiar do the surviving ones seem. Is that simply due to my recollection of them being reinforced by acquiring my replacement Bible within a relatively short period of time after the original (and owning it for so long a period since), or were they simply more memorable from the start?
Like I say, given their familiarity, it just doesn't seem possible that I wouldn't have missed any of the others, but that's not something I can test this far down the line. However, one look at any of them (including the 'returned' pair) and I'm back in my old bedroom of my former house,
just a young teenager with eternity seemingly stretching ahead of me,
instead of the mortality that waits to ambush me when I least expect it.
As I've said on so many occasions before, where did the time go? And can I have it back again please? If any of you would like to see the 17 illustrations of which I write, you can do so by clicking here. If there's anything you thought you'd forgotten until something reminded you of it, feel free to record it for posterity in the comments section. (And should any of you be wondering about the post's title, the artist responsible for the 17 illustrations was Jack Hayes.)
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