A: Every useless bit ever mentally digested pops up even decades later.
Q: What is really fucking annoying?
I have a prodigious memory, one that recalls without prompts everything from the profoundly impactive to the ridiculously trivial and much in between. I remember names, events and circumstances leading to them, jokes, phone numbers, all the verses of the Mr. Ed theme song … and a zillion other bits of pop culture … recipes, teachers, lessons, and much more going back now a very long way.
It sometimes comes in handy, and as the depository for life’s detritus in my family my brothers can find me useful. At other times, however, it is just fucking annoying.
Take last night for example …
I’m trying to get my head to slow down enough to drift off to sleep when I’m suddenly conjuring images of the guy in the photo at the top of this post and wondering what ever happened to Commando Cody.
While sleep evades, I recall buzzing around a living room with arms outstretched, then reaching down to punch an imagined communicator button where a lapel pin might go, cocking my head toward my chest and sending messages as I fly from the couch and run patterns on a braided rug as a little brother tries to mimic the antics.
Because I can, I Google ‘Commando Cody’, find images I instantly recognize and the disturbing information that this was a TV show that aired 12 episodes over a period of two months in 1955.
I was FOUR.
NBC, weekly, Saturdays, 11:00 to 11:30 AM, July 16 to October 8, 1955 …
Two years after their (very unsuccessful) theatrical release, the 12 films were sold to NBC, which ran them during the late summer and fall of 1955, only after all other space adventure TV programs had vanished completely from the air.
What else is locked up in this head of mine that might seep out in the dark of night? If recall of not only the sights and sounds, but also the true title and lead character of a TV show that was barely a blip on the radar of entertainment for an eye blink of time when I was four-years-old can slide from a cranial fold into conscious thought fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus more than half a century later it’s a wonder I ever get any sleep.
“Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities, but not limited to, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, reasoning, learning, having emotional knowledge, retaining, planning, and problem solving” – for me equals SANDRA…
At least I can be sure you will remember me ;-)), no matter if this memory is useless or useful.
Have a wonderful day, I send you a big hug!!
Judith
Remembering you would never be a problem, Judith! Hugs back …
Intelligence has a few curses. One other one is that we feel stress and anxiety very acutely, according to my psychologist who managed my stress during “the battle”.
Catch-22 really: if I were not intelligent, I could not have fought the battle, but doing so cost me more because I am intelligent.
Somethings I do forget – short-term memory is not as good as it once was – but the long-term stuff is fine.
The short-term stuff may be twitchy, actually, as I can’t right now recall whether or not I ate anything today … Shit!
Twitchy! 😆
Ah, the wonders of TV. HIlarious Sandra. Strange the memories that come back when we are in bed.
Good to see a new post.
Lisa S.
Thanks, Lisa … but I have no idea when the next post will appear …
Oh you know how I love playing in that head ofr yours, and I glad to see a post 🙂 besides I am the same way with useless bits of information stock piled into my mind for obscure use every know and then 🙂
Playing in my head? Hm … you’re a brave man, Mr. Kahn.
Well I am nothing if not brave my dear 😉
Cute, too!
Hi Sandra,
How are you doing?
It’s no accident that certain memories come to us. Somewhere, I read that certain feeling states evoke memories that contain those feeling states. So, maybe a feeling that you experienced the other night corresponded to a feeling you experienced while watching Commando Cody.
I think I’ve correctly remembered what I read. But, maybe I made it up. Experience tells me that I can’t rely on my memories, short or long.
Hope all is well, Sandra. 🙂
Hi Marianne! Hope all is good in your world.
Can’t imagine what might link Commando Cody to head-on-the-pillow 56 years later, but the mind is convoluted. Trying to sort through it right now I’m aware that I’d just finished reading a biography of Wallis Simpson, but a connection there seems a stretch …
Wallis Simpson. Wow! Sounds like an interesting life lived.
I think the information I read about memory and feeling states was in a book titled, “The Presence Process – A Journey into Present Moment Awareness” by Michael Brown. It’s a great book. The author had an incredible experience of healing from a neurological condition. In fact, I think it’s time for me to try his program once again.
Have a great weekend in paradise, Sandra. We’re having a blizzard here at the moment.
I don’t think I’m all that big on the present moment, which may be why I’m reliving Commando Cody these days. Sigh …
It’s stormy here this weekend, too, but far from blizzard conditions. Stay warm!
Memories that deep are typically laid in through the sensory system: sight, sound, smell, touch, movement. Some of my memories go way way back too, and run the gamut from the fantastic to the completely mundane. Agree also with the above post about highly intelligent folks being very sensitive and anxiety prone. A tough combo sometimes! Good to see a post, nice food for thought!
Thanks, Amy.
I keep waiting for someone else to remember Commando Cody. That may not happen. I’m feeling a bit like the last Confederate widow …
I take the fifth on Commando Cody, Fireball XL5, and even Perry Mason. I will tell a slightly funny story about Perry Mason. At a very young age, on the very hottest days, I would often dress up in a suit, almost every day actually and strongly encourage 3 or 4 others around me to get dressed up and act out as Della, Paul Drake, etc. Cases would be solved and then we would go play baseball, me in my little Brown Suit.
Luke! Where have you been all my life???
I too have a memory for birthdays, events from the way back machine of yeateryear.
People always ask me when someone’s bday is or other trivia.
Maybe it was whatever was in the water way back then on Derby ct.
Suzie B.
Hi Sandra. How’s it going? It’s been several months since your last post (unless…you moved and didn’t tell me (hehehe)). Anyway, I miss your witty humour and gift for the written word. Thinking of you and hope all is well. 🙂
Thanks, Marianne, but I’ve just not had much of anything to say. Not well … but still here …
Selfish request, I know. Hang in there, Sandra. My thoughts are with you.
Thank you.
Sandra, sending you best wishes from the East Coast while it is snowing and a terrible day forecast! Old age is a beast and it slips up on you while you are not looking! Plus I feel like we have entered the Brave New World and I am not sure I am Brave enough. Hope
Hope flings infernos … and I’m glad I’m old. I fear for the young, and that we may end up being the only generation in human history to have had a fairly easy world to live in.