Legal Quandary

Do you remember what you were doing 20 years ago today?

I do.

I had just come home from summer camp where, in my teen-aged estimation, I'd met the most fabulous guy. Our group spent 1 week in Minnesota, and then some of us stayed for another week as "Junior Counselors" or "Free Labor" or some other meaningless title. I stayed. He didn't - but he wrote me at least one letter during that week. And knowing me, I probably wrote him a lengthy missive in return.

I remember giddily calling him as soon as I got home. Since neither of us could drive and we lived on opposite sides of the city, we didn't get to see each other for a couple of weeks - but in retrospect we decided that July 5th was our "anniversary." That guy was B - and we ended up dating for most of high school and well into college.

Since B and I still keep in touch, I sent him an email asking him the question posed in the title of this post. I was genuinely surprised to find that he didn't remember.

I guess I shouldn't expect someone to remember the details of their failed relationships, but the thing is that I do.

Sadly for my bar studies, this memory for detail doesn't typically relate to the law, but I tend to remember lots of minute details about people who have been important in my life. And if you ask me when I first met most of my friends, I can usually pinpoint an event and in some cases give you the date. If there was food involved, I can probably tell you what it was. And it really throws me if I forget things I feel like I should remember.

Does anyone else do this or am I some kind of freak of nature?

posted by Legal Quandary at 23:24