I'm horrible at meeting people, I get so flustered at having to actually interact with another human in person that I never remember their names and I forget their face and I'm also one of those people that cannot recognize people outside of where I expect them to be. If I work with you 8 hours a day every day at work and then run into you at the Home Depot on a Saturday, I WILL walk right past you with no inkling as to who you are.I also have a brain cluttered with genealogy and historical facts that have over-written things like the name of a person I worked with 4 jobs ago. Or the name of a person I went to high school with.
I DO have a wonderfully dear friend I've known since high school who remembers every. single. person. she's ever met, their full and maiden names, birthdays, children's names, previous employers, vacation destinations, everything. I can't tell you how many times I've said to her "Do I know this <insert name here>" and she'll have all this info just spill out. Sometimes something she says sparks a dim candle, sometimes I just have to take her word for it. :-)
I'll tell you what my brain DOES store away though....Architectural details. Yeah, I know, but it is what it is. It can be both fun and annoying.
For instance, I'll recognize places used in movies all the time from one movie to another. I always look at architecture, in movies and real life - when I look at a house in real life, I'll immediately see the addition, I'll see the window that was replaced, I'll see the porch that doesn't make sense and then notice where one used to be. I'll relate it in age to the houses next to it, older, younger, unique, cookie-cutter, what decade and style it was built in.
One example of a place I always notice in movies/TV is this office building that turns up all the time, I notice it because it's a wonderful atrium in the center with beautiful railings and banisters that they just don't make anymore. I first noticed it in Wolf, but once it was registered in my brain, I then saw it all the time:
When I watch a TV show or movie that involves moving through some sort of building or house, my mind automatically starts mapping out a floor plan, sometimes its annoying because I realize the movie maker did not take that into consideration and it makes no sense at all.
And beyond all that, I actually dream buildings all the time. The boring events of my dreams take place in houses, mansions, hotels, cities that are unique to my dreams. Once I even was exploring a haunted abandoned lunatic asylum! Yeah, I've watched a LOT of horror movies in my life, lololol.
I find it hard to describe the places verbally to others, I can still see many of the dream places in my head, vividly, in technicolor, but when I try to describe it I say, "oh I was in a house looking for some item". I'm not sure why that is - maybe there is some connection in my brain that isn't clicking together right but it seems so inadequate to use words to describe my places when I should just be able to beam the picture in my head into your head so no description is necessary.
So that's the background for what happened to make me think about all this.
Lately I've been watching this AWESOME new TV channel (MeTV) that shows all kinds of old shows from the 60s and 70s and I've been watching all these wonderful shows showing the AWFUL way everyone dressed and the AWFUL interior decorating, geeeez what were all thinking!!!!
One of my favorite shows of all time that I watched reruns of as a young child was Night Gallery. Oh how I loved this show!! During the summer spending time at my Grandparents I would stay up late and watch the show on Channel 17, it came on at 11:30pm after Laugh-In. I would set myself up like 6 inches from the TV in the living room, lights off (everyone else was in bed), and patiently sit through Laugh-In, understanding about 5% of the jokes, and then Night Gallery came on. I hear that the shows were originally an hour, but I've only ever seen the half hour cut up version.
So MeTV has Night Gallery reruns on in the middle of the night and for the past year I just DVR them en masse and pop them on whenever I think of it. I see now how chopped up the shows are since they are cut down, but my nostalgia prevails and I still watch them. :-)
Another show I just discovered that I'd never seen before is Columbo. I know, I know, I knew what the show was, I knew who Peter Falk was, but I'd never seen the show before! I really like it, it's very charming and there's all these guest stars from the 70s who are just fabulous.
So there I was on a Sunday night not too long ago, all comfy cozy and watching Columbo annoy someone and I realize immediately that I recognize the set. It's from a Night Gallery episode and I know which one, it was the one with Leonard Nimoy, oh Leonard, Rest in Peace. The next day I went to the interwebs and voila, there's the Night Gallery episode on hulu (yay Hulu!!!):
And here's the same set from Colombo episode "Requiem for a Falling Star", different door to the outside, changed the pillow color on the wicker furniture (the SAME furniture even!!!!) and voila!:
Apparently, the 2 episodes were filmed a few months apart.
I know it's kind of weird, but I thought it was pretty cool that now in addition to real places I can start cataloging in my brain when sets are re-used between shows. :-)
I might not remember your face or your name, but if you show me a photo of your house or living room I bet I remember that. :-)
It does help when I'm scanning old family photos and trying to figure out whose living room or whose house it is so I guess I'll keep it as my strange little talent.
