There are certain things in life, you never forget. And the connections between the parts of this…. are uncanny. I call it “The Barbra Streisand Connection.” Follow me on this one, okay?
I’ll say it again. There are certain things we never, ever forget.
Some people seem to remember their first kiss. Mine must have been pretty unremarkable. As I don’t remember.
I do however, recall the night my Grandma K went to the hospital. It was on my third birthday, and we were having a party. I can remember, very clearly, certain details about the end of the evening, and the “feeling” of gravity in the air, as they led Grandma out the front door.
Most of us don’t have memories from age three. This is my only one. I just read an article about this. A recent study revealed that kids get what the scientists are calling… “Childhood Amnesia.”
The Lab Coats ran several tests. Kids hold on to memories for a little while. But then after a few years… away they go. Like the stuff never happened. Most of these “lost” memories occur before the age of 0 to 6.
Even after that, I have a sketchy bit here, and a sketchy bit there. One I recall quite vividly was concerns our family cat, Fritz. I know I have told it before, but some people may have missed it.
The short version is this: It was a Sunday morning. When I was about six. My sister and I read “Hi and Lois” in the Sunday comic section. The cartoon family gave the dog a bath and a haircut. The dog looked marvelous. Julie and I decide Fritz needed a makeover. So we headed to the basement, found Fritz, and gave her a close shave with Mom’s haircutting clippers. It was the dead of winter.
Mom was infuriated. She called us Big Dumbheads. (Depending on our level of stupidity, Mom would often times just call us “Dumbhead”…. BUT…. when we were extremely cretinous, we were deemed…. “BIG Dumbheads.” But I digress.) It wasn’t so much Mom’s thundering reaction… as it was the look on my Dad’s face. He just shook his head back and forth… and gave us THAT “look”. I will never forget.
I suspect, that the things we remember the most, revolve around a very emotionally driven experience in our lives. We have certain strong feelings that somehow, linger in our brain.
So there you have it. The Barbara Streisand Connection.
People retaining the memories which are based on past, intense feelings.
And WHAT were three of Bab’s top grossing songs?
People.
Memories.
Feelings.
I smell Conspiracy theory. Or a cat with razor burn. I am not sure which.
.
“Mem’ries, may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.”
– Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were, aka Memories