Ye Olde Thornton Memorie

David is always amazed at how I can remember things--fairly vividly--that happened a long time ago. This is made more amazing by the fact that I can read some books twice and not even realize it or mis-remember huge important plot devices or characters. (Sometimes I even misplace characters in the wrong books, but I think that's more my overactive imagination rather than a bad memory.) And movies are the worst because I've forgotten what happened by the time I walk out of the theater or turned off the DVD player.

But if it is an event that I lived through I will remember in fairly good detail what happened, where I was, what I was doing, what month and year it was, etc. David thinks that is a trait of the Thornton family--which he calls our elephant memory.

I think he's right in that my grandmother remembers dates unlike any other person I've ever met. I remember as a kid that she could state within a second exactly how long she had been married. Betty tells stories of Grandma remembering people's anniversaries and birthdays that she had met only one time.

So, I thought I would share a little about how that memory works. I can usually place myself time and date wise fairly quickly. For instance, if you were to ask me what I was doing in April 1998, I would think through this way: I moved to Kentucky in June 1996, so April 1998 was in my second year of being in KY. I was teaching composition 2 (my second time to teach that class at UK) to my class of 7 Matts, 4 Michaels and 5 Jennifers (no kidding). I think, too, that was the month I went to my first academic conference in South Carolina with an old professor from TAMU. The girls were 6 years old and still at Alpine Village School. We were living in the little house on Eagle Creek. This was around the time the ducks were eating my flowers--and I know that because it was my first spring at the house and we were going to be gardeners despite the fact that neither David nor I have the patience or talent to garden. I couldn't even begin to tell you what I was reading because I was reading so much for classes. I do, however, remember spending a lot of time at the campus bookstore--probably because it was on my way to my car and there were so many books I wanted to read and couldn't, so I went to the bookstore to ogle them. Also, this was the summer before my serious bout with the hives brought about by my stressing over the exams that I thought were upcoming.

I personally don't think this recall is anything special. I'm also really uncomfortable that I've gotten a good bit of it wrong, so, loyal readers, tell me, can you remember general information about what you were doing in April 1998?