As the first child, and within circumstances created as strange yet portrayed as normal, I was inundated with early trauma. This endowed me with hyperthymesia which are instances of time recalled in episodic memory. For example, my first memories are of being a baby – and not foggy, partial remembrances, but moments in time I re-experience in vivid clarity.
What comedian recently came out with a similar "affliction"? I too memorized US Presidential history. My parents used me as a party favor from the age of 8. Right. And the Greatest Generation found me quite useful for crossword puzzles. I have a lot of stories about this. Maybe I'll have a chance to go into it.
My memories of events can be like re-living it all. I think of a moment of a time of life I experience, and I can place myself there mentally with a clarity that is disconcerting to others. To a degree, in transgressing the always-changing culural norms, this served to my benefit. I could relate on a multi-generational understanding that many my age, and since, just cannot.
It is, however, a curse.
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