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| Earliest Pictorial Evidence |
I am now firmly mid-aged.
Not a problem thanks.
Even with the tinitus, failing eyesight, eczema on the bottom of my right foot and the occasional back 'flare-up'.
Considering some of the life-style choices I've made in the past I count myself lucky to be among the quick and animate.
On the way to here I've lost everything I've owed at least 4 times and had to start all over again.
This, in effect, means that I don't have many physical objects to remind me of any specific time or event from my past.
I have very little photographic evidence of my existence prior to the year 2000 and, therefore, very few images to take me back way back then.
And, to my eternal relief, I'm not in contact with any family group I've ever been a part of prior to meeting Linda.
What I do have is my memory, which is good, if a little haphazard with a tendency to wander round in circles.
There is, however, a situation that needs some attention.
The strongest memories I have tend to be quite unpleasant, dark even.
These monsters cast a giant shadow over the better memories, make them seem puny and trivial by comparison and then gradually blot them out.
But they're not the whole picture.
Not by a long way.
I hit upon a way of sorting this situation out and thereby putting the monsters into their correct perspective relative to everything else that's happened along the way.
What I needed to do was 'file' my memories properly.
"How will you achieve this?" I'll assume you've asked.
I decided the best way to approach this task was to write down each year I've been alive with the age I would have been at the time like so:
- 1958 0
- 1959 1
- 1960 2
- 1961 3
- 1962 4
- 1963 5
- 1964 6
- 1965 7
- 1966 8
- 1967 9
- 1968 10
- 1969 11
- 1970 12
- 1971 13
- 1972 14
- 1973 15
- 1974 16
- 1975 17
- 1976 18
- 1977 19
- 1978 20
- 1979 21
- 1980 22
- 1981 23
- 1982 24
- 1983 25
- 1984 26
- 1985 27
- 1986 28
- 1987 29
- 1988 30
- 1989 31
- 1990 32
- 1991 33
- 1992 34
- 1993 35
- 1994 36
- 1995 37
- 1996 38
- 1997 39
- 1998 40
- 1999 41
- 2000 42
- 2001 43
- 2002 44
- 2003 45
- 2004 46
- 2005 47
- 2006 48
- 2007 49
- 2008 50
- 2009 51
- 2010 52
- 2011 53
Doesn't have to be deeply 'significant', just something that happened during that year.
Starting infant's school, jobs, groups I've been in for instance.
I'll keep adding what I can, good or bad, to the list.
Eventually each year will have it's own page and will need to be broken down in to months.
I've found some very valuable information in the little red account books I habitually kept from around 1994 to 2008.
They list exactly what I'd spent every penny on and give clues to where I was living, who I was living with, what I was doing for a living and what I was eating.
I have an old cycling diary.
It lists destinations, speeds, weather conditions and a general note on how I felt during the ride.
My findings so far indicate that it's the most prosaic facts that bring forth the strongest memories.
I'm going to continue this process and will report back from my past in future posts.
Stay tuned.
2 comments:
Interesting post and a useful memory formula. I've moved house 21 times (not through wanderlust, just circumstance) and have lived twice as many years. I find I categorise a lot of memories by the names of streets I've lived in.
Bloody hell, this is quite a project. I find it very hard to put dates on things and I divide my early life into school phases and later life into who I was going out with. I have virtually no photos of my childhood and consequently began to obsessively photograph everything I did as soon as I got a camera. After my children, those albums would be the only things I'd save from a fire.
When it comes to years when you know the memories are going to be difficult, make sure that you're in a safe place with Linda around. One's responses to the most innocuous things can sometimes take you by surprise. I'm sure you know this, but I'm reminding you.
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