Why do we remember the things we remember? Sometimes it's easy to see why

[raccoon]

we'd remember an event/incident that seemed important to us. For instance, we may remember a pet we loved from early childhood, or what we were doing when we heard JFK was shot, when 9/11 happened, etc. We remember traumatic events, exciting, scary, and joyful moments. That's not surprising.

What I wonder is why sometimes we remember events that weren't traumatic, exciting, scary, joyful, but just run-of-the-mill. Or do we? I was sitting here thinking, trying to come up with an example for yall. And I started to wonder if, even if the memory SEEMS quite mundane, it might in some way have had some importance to us at the time, and that’s why it sticks in our memory.

[DebJ]

1. I'm 55, and I remember being 4 years old, standing on the

toilet in our apartment, while my mother braided my very long hair into French braids. That is my only remaining memory of times before 1st grade. No idea why I remember it. There is no emotional response connected to that memory, except that I seem to recall being bored.

[Winterblues]

2. I can still remember quite a few things from when I was quite young

I remember dressing my dog up in my clothes and walking her around the neighborhood when I was about four years old. I remember many movies from that time period as well. In fact I think my menory of my years between four years and ten years are better than my memories of my twenties and early thirties.. I partied a lot back then though so that could be a reason..

[raccoon]

4. That's a great example of the type of memory I was talking about in the 2nd paragraph.

Something mundane, no logical reason why we'd remember it....but we do.

[pipi_k]

3. Sometime the strangest thing happens....

I'll be listening to music from the past and all of a sudden it's like I've totally left the present and gone back in time to when that song was popular.

I mean, I'm there.

Then the song ends and I find myself back in the present. Sometimes it's cool. Sometimes it hurts very much. To come back, I mean. Mostly what makes it hurt is coming back to a time that's less innocent than the one I left behind.

[EC]

5. I know,

as I get older I seem to have more memories that were of the senses so to speak. Like the way the sunshine hit the carpet or the smell of a breeze, being the trigger...all of a sudden I feel like I'm back in a different time and place...memories of sitting in my old living room and watching the sunshine hit the carpet and the kitten swatting at the sunspots...just senses of days past, but just mundane, ordinary days...hardly remember any of those "special" events - like the prom or all those other things we spend money on thinking we are making memories...


I think these are simple times of contentment that we go back to when something triggers it - something sensual like smell, taste, etc...