I had a friend come into town for a few days. On one of the nights that she was here she and another of our friends who resides in Orange County decided they were going to go out in Hollywood. I unfortunately had another commitment that I couldn’t get out of and couldn’t join them. Halfway through the night they called completely lost, trying to find a bar/club– in all fairness this place is a little hidden. They had the address, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I asked them what they were near and then they told me. I knew they’d gone too far because I happened to know the address of one of the places they’d just driven past, The Key Club. I then told them they needed to head back in the opposite direction and gave them some other landmarks along with the addresses so they’d know what their destination was near. They only had to call me back for re-directions once more and eventually they got to the place they were looking for and had a good time.
The next morning we all went to breakfast and I was asked how on earth I remembered those addresses. I actually have a pretty good memory, but before I could explain how I recalled those addresses my good friend shrieked to our other friend “Oh my god! Has Siria ever told you about how she remembers things by what she outfit she was wearing?!!! She remembers everything! Siria tell her!!!” This may sound weird, but this is true sort of, and if you are good friends with me then you know this already. If you aren’t, I’ll explain the outfit thing in a minute.
Everyone has their own memory tricks and perhaps you use mnemonic devices like acronyms or rhymes? Mine is a little different, but I’m sure just as common. So before you start thinking that I have Savant syndrome (think Rain Man) my ability to recall something is almost usually only as good as my ability to visualize it, and usually that serves me well as I have a pretty good memory.
For example the way I recalled the Key Club address wasn’t very complicated. We put shows on there on a monthly basis for a little over two years, so I constantly had to give that address out. However, the way I recall it still is by either visualizing an old flier advertising a show there or an email blast that had the address on it. Most of the clubs ( Three Clubs, Lava Lounge, The Echo, Safari Sams, Spaceland, Zen Sushi, etc.) that we put shows on at I can remember the addresses to in this manner. El Cid was a little harder for me for some reason, but one day I came across a photo of a friend that was taken during one of our shows and right above his head is a close-up of the address, so after that anytime I needed to recall that address I just visualized that photo.
I remember on long (or even short ones sometimes) car trips, I used to try to memorize license plates of the vehicles on the road. It was something that would keep me mentally occupied and also probably kept me from being one of those annoying “are we there yet?” kids. To this day, I can remember some of them if I can visualize them. I remember the license plate numbers/letters of most our vehicles growing up as well as most of my own (except my current one, as I haven’t even bothered to try to learn it).
When I was in elementary school and junior high I participated in a lot of academic competitions and for many of those we had to memorize stuff like the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, as well as lots of speeches, etc. before we’d even gone over them in class so we usually had to learn these on our own. Since I unfortunately was not present at the penning of the Declaration of Independence nor the Preamble (I wonder what outfit I would’ve wore on that occasion) I used to have to either find the most aesthetically pleasing photo/rendering of these documents or to write the words out over and over so that I could picture myself writing the words or picture the words themselves when the time to recall them came.
Same thing with music, I grew up in the days of cassettes and cd’s. I’ve never been very good at recalling album names, but usually can reference the cover art or the cd art and most people will know which it is that I am referring to.
This isn’t to say that I retain everything, I don’t and sometimes it does take me a while. My memory has it’s faults just like everyone else’s. However if I was an active participant (meaning actually paying attention) in whatever was being discussed or demonstrated then 9 out of 10 times I will recall it.
So back to the outfit thing, some people find it funny and I’m sure when I say something like “Hold on, I’ll remember just let let me think back to what I was wearing,” it probably does sound like something out of Clueless. In all honesty, the outfit is the starting point and yes I can probably remember almost all events that occurred on a certain day (dating back to early childhood) if I can remember what I was wearing. Recalling what I was wearing helps me get back into that time and place and eventually get to whatever I wanted to recall. It may sound like a long process, but actually for me it’s a pretty quick one. The easiest thing to compare my method of recalling things is to taking a photo of something (more like a still) or video footage.
The main reason my friends find it amusing is because like most girls I love to shop and have a ton of clothes and they can’t fathom how I can recall what is in my closet(s) now let alone dating back over 20 years. Don’t worry though, I probably won’t recall what you were wearing, just my own outfit. Ridiculous maybe, but it’s my method and next time you see me you can quiz me by asking what I was wearing when we met for coffee that one time 4 years ago. Or to take it a step further, in ten years you can ask me what I was wearing when I wrote this. You could also just share your memory tricks with me, I’d probably enjoy that a lot more.
cartoon/photo originally published here
