h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was wondering what researchers have experienced and find their most abiding, or vivid, or maybe emotional memory?

I know that all our researchers have experienced different things in their lives, but what is your strongest etc. memory?

Was it meeting a famous person?
Your first child?
The day you married? Or divorced?
When a loved one died?
When you discovered, or did, something amazing?
Or maybe just saw something amazing, like a sunset, a famous landmark, or just a natural spectacle?

And what makes an abiding memory?

Are you prepared to share? And what made it so memorable?

Looking forward to a few of your shares.






MMF

Hold on, it'll come to me in a minute...

When I was 7 and saw and touched snow for the first time..

Learning to ride a bicycle the first solo the freedom it gave to go out and explore.
In hindsight it was a more memorable event than getting a driving licence.

I don't really have a 'most abiding memory'. I can remember many things that happened to me since I was four, although some are gone. The intervening 51 years have wiped some things completely, but I still have a rwasonable of what it was like to be 5, 6, 7 etc.

I'm not sure I have a single, abiding memory, as such, but several standout ones, that always spring readily to mind.

One, is definatly the time we spotted a king fisher, over the river, whilst canoeing, guess I'd have been maybe 13 or 14...
Another two are of when I did a lot of hiking, one in particular, in derbyshire, just a loverly day, walking, err, no longer quite recall where, but it was just a loverly vista, rhodendrum growing about, I recall, me, and a male friend, and two female friends, hiking....
Simularly, another is of hiking, peak district I think, and just a random spot, by a little stream, we found, and liked so much we set up an impromptu base, for a few hours, cooked and just enjoyed the tiny microclimate and views...
Oh... and recalled another from when I was even younger... a marsh area, left from wehn the railways arrived, late victorian period, a sort of marsh area, between that railline, that cut off the river, and a road, then on the other side...

breaking into it... further than I had before, through all the undergrowth, and discovering, right at the back, really hidden away, a little clearing, with a spring coming up and feeding a small pool, which, was full of tiny fish, and frog spawn etc... was just so pretty and undistrubed... got scratched to pieces to get there if I recall correctly though

way way way more recently. last year, September the 1st, at the funeral of my longest (to date), lover/partner, and just being so admiring of the friends, family, work colegues, who'd turned out for his funeral, and in particular, the strength, and courage, of his Father (well into his 90s), throughout... bittersweet.
odd how most seem nature orientated... things like concerts gigs, etc., beer fests etc., I recall... arn't in some ways as noteworthy, not entirely sure why...

although... having said which, randomly and without forethought of planning and knowledge, randomly bumping into Roymondo (socket) (from hootoo), at the cambridge beer fest, in the toilets, was... noteworthy for its randomness coincidence/unlikelyness, and... just weirdness

The oldest thing I can remember is when I was 2 and we went to Courtown on holidays. I remember the owner of the guesthouse commenting on my good appetite.

My next oldest memory was when I was 3 and we went to visit my mother's friends on a farm near Kiltealy. We were sent out to find Nicky, who was only 2, and eventually found him asleep in the little corner behind the front porch.

I can remember lots of things from when I was four, including our visit to the Isle of Man.

I was very young about 5 when I first met my Grandfather he was a calm quiet man and I remember that he was very thin on top just hair around the edges. Not having seen the phenomenon before I asked him "Grandad why are you growing up through your hair"

all round

I was not yet two when I went to the hospital to have my tonsils removed. I remember being so small as the nurse led me into the hallway. My next memory as waking up after the operation and being given chocolate ice cream. Somehow that ice cream has stood for everything that is soothing ever since.

I remember a Christmas concert in high school, in which a girl sang with such a lovely voice that my heart was touched.

I remember an episode of "The Outer Limits" in which a hapless bridegroom was sucked into a television set by an evil blob from outer space . That gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards.

I remember the delicate smell of pink ladyslippers that used to bloom in the woods near my house when I was growing up.

I remember the tickling sensation of snowflakes falling on my nose and face.

Therfe you have it: taste, sound, sight, smell, and touch.

From School:

1. Being sent to the toilets for the rest of the lesson 'cos I couldn't, just Could Not, make myself pronounce 'Pharaoh'. It came out 'Far Oh Ah' every blerry time.

2. Being constantly bullied by that great hulking roughy-toughy Glaswegian ... thinking about it ... eventually standing at the corner of the playground and looking pointedly at him as he emerged from the boarding part of the school. Perhaps he had more about him than I'd thought, 'cos he sent his sidekick (a roughy-toughy Glaswegian too, but more my size) against whom, methinks, I made a fair showing... after which, fair winds and a following sea...


From Uganda, 1950-ish, (before the above)
This little prig of a whitey lad making some remark to Georgie the houseboy, that resulted in me being chased full tilt down the street by him waving a Panga (machete) ... creeping back to apologise and being met with a laugh and a ruffle of my hair.
Racism? Oh yes, there's a cure for it...

The sound Hiccup made when she born, more a mew than a cry, it meant everything to me in that moment

Being slapped around the face by a teacher because I wouldn't finish my lunch at infant school, I still didn't finish it. Teachers sort of lost their authority after that.

Oh yes - a school incident. I was in the first form, so we sat in the front rows at assembly, in full view of the teachers. Monday mornings our first lesson was art. The art teacher was hated by all, especially the girls as he may have been a bit of a groper and he often had very unjustified views.

We traipsed into the art room after assembly and he sat us all down and started a tirade of at least 20 minutes - aimed at me, for talking in assembly. I just sat there, because I think I had whispered something to my friend Katy who was next to me. Some way into the tirade, he mentioned that I had been talking to my friend Mandy. I finally summoned up the courage to say that I hadn't been sitting anywhere near Mandy - and a few mumbles from the rest of the class confirmed this.

It turned out he had been going on at me for the sins of another girl in the parallel class who looked a little like me, but who, of course, wasn't even in the art room!

My indignance and conviction that I really wasn't at fault prevented me from bursting into tears, and I'm sure he felt very small when he realised his mistake. But I don't remember if he apologised to me.

------------------

Another silly thing I remember from about that time was when we were playing rounders - probably the first or second form, so I was 11 or 12. This time it was my fault.

I was backstop, but I have this thing that I can never decide which side I'm on - either of an argument, high politics, abortion, or in this case 18 little girls in embarrassing gym knickers. So, I was a fielder, standing behind the batsman, supposed to catch the ball when it came my way. I completely forgot that I was fielding and let a ball go past me - I think it was rolling by then - in easy reach. My team were screaming at me to pick up the ball and get it back to the girl bowling, and there was I cheering the girl from the opposing team on, to get to home base!

My first memory is of my dad trying to sneak out of the room without waking me up after reading me a bedtime story, but I opened my eyes and we laughed.

I then remember being 2 and feeling awesome as I ran round the house in the fastest ever time.

I also have memories of the unfairness of teachers at school (especially the one who said "don't push past, say excuse me" after I had shouted excuse me as loud as I could 3 times before trying to squeeze through the doorway as a last resort).

Another awesome moment was when I went on a course and we all had to stab a potato with a straw (something that seems impossible at first, but is actually doable with the right frame of mind) - it took me the longest out of all of the attendees, but when I finally did it at last, the whole room cheered

The memory of being bereaved is still very fresh, but I do like it that random happy memories of my relationship pop up every now and then for me to enjoy.

Carl Sagan asked his child "what's your earliest memory?" The child replied "it was red and I was very cold".

Sagan didn't know what to make of this. He acknowledged that it could have been a memory of birth, but there was no way of proving it.

I was three, maybe four. My little brother was an infant, so probably late summer after he was born. I was standing on a low stool to reach the table, and I was drawing with crayons. But the stool wobbled, and I fell backwards and had a decent concussion.
Mum must have handed my baby brother to a neigbour, or maybe she brought him, I can't remember that bit.
But we got into a taxi, and I was sick on the floor of it, because of the concussion. It was a long drive, probably half an hour to an hour?
I had to stay at the hospital overnight, and my mum had to leave me, in a shared room with old ladies.
I remember the ladies scolding me for picking at my lips, which were really dry and peeling.
And I was crying. I have the memory that the doctors wanted to keep me longer because they thought I was crying from pain, but in reality I was mostly homesick, lonely and afraid. I may be wrong about the doctors wanting to keep me longer, but that's the feeling I remember.
I had to use some single use toothbrushes, with the "toothpaste/soap" already soaked into them, and they were terribly hard, hurting my gums. I had some terry cloth shirt on.
It felt like a week, but more likely one night, maybe two.

I'll not go on about my mum's illness and death last year, it's still so new.

I suspect our most abiding memories are those we've remembered and reinforced or reinterpreted many times throughout our lives, and as such they may not be as accurate as we think.

Memory is odd - I had a very busy and stressful weekend with work-callouts, and now I remember hardly a single thing that happened last week. I'm reading e-mails of all this stuff which I was dealing with, but it's very vague now.

I´ll open my memories file...

4 years old, a broken pot and water spilled on the street, near home. My elder sister crying ( she had gone to fetch the water.
Until 1975, there wasn´t water from taps inside houses in my village)
this is the pot:

http://www.relaxtotdivani.com/FitxersWeb/30861/CANTARO%20NORMALAMP%20CERAM.jpg

Next year , we move to another house in the village. We did it late at night, I´m sleepy on my mother back. My brothers and sister are next to me carrying objects.

Playing with dogs, playing in the countryside, climbing up trees, foraging...
Pigs screaming, cleaning pigs, feeding hens, taking the goats to the herd...

Went to the town to work (14 years old) took a decision that has shaped my life since them. I wanted to study. I remember that day clearly.

There are plenty of more images, sounds...
the latest one, from this summer. After visiting the Nerja Cave, we went to the near beach. The place was small, full of vegetation descending, or climbing the near slopes: buganvillas, palm trees,thin bambu, pines... a distant hill , also full green... the sand soft, not rocky, not too hot... I felt complete happiness.

the Nerja Cave:
http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/A77559015

I agree that our most abiding memories are the ones we replay and that they are memories of memories as much as they are about the original event. I have three memories I can place to the age of two years.

First. I deliberately remembered what it was to be two. I think someone must have told me that no-one remembered being two so I set out to prove them wrong. I remember looking up to the waists of my parents and climbing up to get on the dining chairs. I remember looking down at myself and thinking that I was two.

I shared a bed with my Grandmother when I was staying there without my parents, this only happened when they moved house when I was two. Strangely I have no memories at all of the house we were moving from (even though I went back there as a child, nothing was familiar). About a month after we moved a "strange man" walked up our new drive carrying a folded blue swing frame. I have a photograph in my head of the view I had of this event.

I do not recall the radio report of the death of JFK (I was just two). I have a deep impression of the shock it evoked in my parents.