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Forgetfulness

squonky

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
31
About five or six years ago I took a photograph of myself sitting on my bed, to send to a penfriend. I live in a different house now, but I remember my old house well. I came across the photograph recently and I noticed a big poster on the wall behind me with some dolphins on it. The weird thing is I have absolutely no memory of the poster. All the other things in the picture are familiar. I'm not a forgetful person and I'm quite freaked out by the fact that I could have had a big poster on my wall, right next to my bed and now I can't remember it at all.
 
Just had to say ...that is truly spooky. I'd be freaked too :shock: . Could you have suffered a trauma associated with the poster or it's subject that would have caused you to block it's memory? Maybe investigating that time period in your life a little bit through friends and relations could help? Posting the photo here could be a consideration also - maybe someone might notice something anomalous? Hope you get to the bottom of this.
 
Is it possible you put the poster up on the spur of the moment because your wall was empty and you wanted something behind you for the photo?

That sounds like something I would do, and promptly forget about if I took it down immediately after. Especially if it was a picture to send to someone who I hadn`t met in real life.
 
Just in the last few days, I thought I would put all my sailing cruises into a database, for easy reference. (This was after a chance query had revealed I couldn't remember what I was doing in 1985!)

Now there are several placenames in the database that I had forgotten about, or can't quite recall exactly where they are, but I assumed I could always track them down on a chart or elsewhere.

Until I came to the first record of a boat I subsequently sailed a lot. Apparently I first took charge of this vessel in 1987 at Cobmarsh Marina, and sailed it back to Suffolk via Alderney. Now I don't really remember this trip at all, and I certainly don't remember Cobmarsh Marina, so I googled for it - and came up with zilch! :shock:

Now there is a Cobmarsh Island (little more than a mudbank, really) in Essex, but I'm pretty sure that there never was or is a marina there. In any case, the mileage of the voyage in question would rule that place out. I think the Cobmarsh my notes mention was in the Poole (Dorset) area, but I can't find a mention anywhere.

So have I slipped into an alternate reality somewhere along the line, or did Cobmarsh Marina go bust, or change its name, without apparently leaving any records behind? :?

Anyone got any clues here?
 
After posting the above, I recalled that the builders of that boat went bust a few years later, so I googled for info on them. Found plenty, but Cobmarsh Marina still isn't in Googlespace anywhere!
 
my memory is completely and utterly shot, actually when it was at its worst a couple of years ago, i once got lost trying to find the street where i'd lived for over 10 years, after someone dropped me off on the main road about 25 yards away...

...a few weeks back, i was at a friends house, and she found an article i'd written in 2000 about a trip i made to the amsterdam gothic weekend. i have a very very vague recollection of being there, but none at all of writing the article, even when i sat down and read it, it was totally new to me :(
 
I think the most bizarre trick my memory ever played on me was many years ago when I was in my twenties and I was asked how old I was and I replied 23 whereupon my mother (who was standing next to me) said "no your not you're 22!" total confusion ensued as I was convinced I was right and it was not until I worked out the number of years from my birthdate that I could be convinced! not only that but I'd been going around giving the wrong age for months!!
 
glamour_dust said:
Just had to say ...that is truly spooky. I'd be freaked too :shock: . Could you have suffered a trauma associated with the poster or it's subject that would have caused you to block it's memory? Maybe investigating that time period in your life a little bit through friends and relations could help? Posting the photo here could be a consideration also - maybe someone might notice something anomalous? Hope you get to the bottom of this.

Here's the picture:
http://photos.orange.co.uk/shared/photo ... o=86690585

The dolphin poster is on the wall directly behind me. The thing that puzzles me is that the picture is not familiar at all; I would have thought that even if I'd forgotten it I would remember it on seeing it again. I've no idea where it could have come from either. I don't remember buying it or anyone giving it to me. The only thing I can think of is that I used to work in a packaging factory at the time and they quite often had old bits of junk which they threw out, so I might have brought it home from work. I still think I would have remembered the image though. It would be interesting if someone actually recognises the picture. Curiously I also happen to be wearing a Greenpeace T-shirt with whales on it in the photograph.
 
The scariest memory failing for me was, when I gave blood for the first time. I have to note here that I wasn't worried at all, rather excited [don't want to go into all this business of how I looove needles etc :oops: ] Anyway, I blame the way it all happened. First of all it was a spur of the moment thing, someone came into work and said if there are any more people who'd like to donate to come down now.
So I did, not knowing what to expect.
As I sat there I was called to a lady who would take my details. She started by asking: "What is your house number?" Rather than my name or my address.
I was totally confused by that. You have to also know that we had moved no less than 14 times in 15 years at that time but that shouldn't be an excuse.
So I sat there and my brain went blank.
If she'd asked: "What is your address?" Then I would have probably been ok because it is like a cue. Being asked for my house number wasn't.
Anyway I told her that I couldn't remember and to give me a moment. She waited patiently whilst I tried to rememeber but came what will, I couldn't. The longer it took, the further away was the number of my house. She then started to get a little annoyed and said that I should sit down and think about it. So I had to get up and sit down on my waiting seat again. By now I was frantic and thought that I had a serious problem. I tried to remember the look of our house in order to get cue in my head that would link me to the house number, but I couldn't even remember what the house looked like!!!!!!! :shock:

I honestly didn't even know what town I was living in and what the house looked like. I got really worried and took a deep breath and then [it must have taken at least 5min]all of a sudden, I remembered the house and subsequently the number and everything else... Needless to say she had probably already marked the paper as "not to use this morons blood" as I was obviously a complete headcase.

That was so scary, having a virtual "blackout" like that. But it also shows how reliant we are on "cues" and how our brains work when caught unawares.
 
Weird. Could you possibly have bought it to give to someone else and had it propped on your bed? It kind of looks a funny place to have a poster as well, you would think it would be damaged by your bedclothes. Perhaps it is the dolphins saying thank you for being a member of Greenpeace. ;)

The funny thing is, this has reminded me of an incident several years ago where I found an ornament which I did not recognise. My mum recognised it and swore it was mine. I can't remember what it looked like now, perhaps it has moved on to puzzle someone else. :lol:
 
Films are a pretty good test of what we remember and for how long. Some correspond quite closely in mood, content, order of events and visual impact to what we recall. Many have a way of dehydrating themselves to a few key moments and some we find we have forgotten almost completely.

There is also the matter of reinforcement. If an event or a movie has appeared in a diary or list, it becomes a fixture. If we find a lost stash of contemporaneous notes, we might find that we had entirely forgotten seeing some things and had watched them a few years later as if they were entirely new to us.

Finding a movie that scared us witless us as kids might lead us to the notion that we have good recall but an old Radio Times will stimulate nostalgia for a few things and a complete blank for lots of things we must have seen or at least been dimly aware of.

I'm sure strong emotions have some rôle in this selectivity: a good scary movie may well leave stronger memories than an amiable comedy. The time-scale over which this happens varies a lot. Now we can replay old videos, I'd guess the majority of movies have become ghostly outlines after a period of between two and five years. "Classic Movies" are a slightly different case because we are reminded of them periodically in articles, books, trailers and clips.

Finding old diaries is even more disconcerting. To find that in 1989, I had recorded about seven events which must have seemed vitally important at the time. Who was that M. who kept taking me to lunch? What on earth did (s)he want? Did (s)he get it? I wish I'd put in a few footnotes. :(
 
HenryFort said:
squonky said:
Here's the picture:
http://photos.orange.co.uk/shared/photo ... o=86690585

The dolphin poster is on the wall directly behind me.
Dolphins?

It looks like a mid-western harvest field by daylight to me. I cant see the dolphins, unless Im looking at the wrong part.

I agree with HenryFort.

What gets me is that the 'perspective' of the poster is all wrong. (The poster on the wall - not the poster on the thread). It's 'kind of' stretched along the bottom - more like a Tapestry. But doesn't look 'out of place' or 'shopped'.

And I see no dolphins. What makes 'you' see dolphins? I see desert - a few thin trees - two 'nodding donkeys' (of the oil extration kind) and a rather green hedge.
 
I can see the dolphins now after some searching but at first they looked like folds of the bed covers and I still can't quite make sure whether they are or not. The picture looks more like a wallpaper border rather than a poster.
 
Henry and Frobush, you are looking in the wrong place, the dolphins are popping up from behind the duvet on the bed.
 
mindalai said:
I can see the dolphins now after some searching but at first they looked like folds of the bed covers and I still can't quite make sure whether they are or not. The picture looks more like a wallpaper border rather than a poster.

Eh? Are we looking at the same bit of the photo?

I've been looking at the 'poster' Tapestry directly behind 'his' head. NOT the dolphin things half hidden behind the bed covers.

Damn! I've got it wrong again!
 
min_bannister said:
Henry and Frobush, you are looking in the wrong place, the dolphins are popping up from behind the duvet on the bed.

I know! Stop rubbing it in! :(
 
Forget about the ruddy dolphins - somebody please find Cobmarsh Marina for me! :(
 
It's okay. Feel free to rub it in anytime you want! :shock:

EDIT - Not you rynner!

Although...
 
rynner said:
Forget about the ruddy dolphins - somebody please find Cobmarsh Marina for me! :(

I've tried.

Can you scan your notes? It may just be a miss spelling or drunken scrawl?

EDIT - I mean scan and post your notes?
 
Squonky, do you remember the other posters on your wall?
 
Frobush said:
rynner said:
Forget about the ruddy dolphins - somebody please find Cobmarsh Marina for me! :(

I've tried.

Can you scan your notes? It may just be a miss spelling or drunken scrawl?

EDIT - I mean scan and post your notes?
The writing's pretty clear. From Cobmarsh we went to Poole, then to Alderney, etc.

My brother now lives in Poole - I've just emailed him about it. Perhaps he knows someone who can shed some light on this. I'll report back if so - but don't hold your breath!
 
Mindalai may have it. I don't think they are dolphins but pale blue bedclothes in two arcs in front of a poster which features tree-like forms and the dorsal fins. I guess those "fins" could be the ears of a creature.

:?:
 
mindalai said:
Squonky, do you remember the other posters on your wall?

Yes I remember all the other pictures. The other big picture behind me is a picture of a draw bridge by Van gogh. You can see it here if you're interested:

link

It's definitely not my bedclothes behind me. I can see quite clearly when I look at the picture full screen. Also, the only bedclothes I had were the dark blue duvet with stars on.


edited by TheQuixote: created hyperlink
 
The reason the perspective of the other picture looks wrong is because the top right corner has come unstuck and it's hanging away from the wall
 
Filling in my database brought up another trick my memory has played on me. I once sailed as mate on a restored Lowestoft sailing trawler. I thought the voyage was from Harwich to Falmouth, and have told people so, but now I look at my log and see that the trip actually ended in Plymouth!

I think I got confused because a few years later, I did see the same boat in Falmouth, and the two separate memories must have fused together... :?
 
squonky said:
The reason the perspective of the other picture looks wrong is because the top right corner has come unstuck and it's hanging away from the wall
Yes thats clear now.

Need it be a poster? Given the width visible and assuming regular "lanscape" proportions, height-wise it would go below the level of the mattress easy, which would be a odd position for a poster, unless it was more of a "banner"? Could it have been a box or something thatd been stowed temporarily down the side of your bed?

Mind you it has the look of one of those 80s Athena posters... Are those tress in the background?

How old were you when you lived there, from what age to what age?
 
rynner said:
Frobush said:
rynner said:
Forget about the ruddy dolphins - somebody please find Cobmarsh Marina for me! :(
My brother now lives in Poole - I've just emailed him about it. Perhaps he knows someone who can shed some light on this.

I tried, too, rynner. As far as I can google, nothing. Certainly hope you hear from your brother!
 
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