Ah, this thing called memory by GJ

I received an e-mail from a former student (class of 56) that caused me to ponder the matter of memory (or recall.) Here are some questions that kind of "bug" me. Why do I recall the names of certain former students, and not others? Why do I recall the work of some students and not others? Why do I recall the faces of some better than others? Why wouldn't I recognize one teen's face after 50 years, yet know another instantly?

One factor jumps out at me, and that's context. I was hailed by a young woman in a restaurant a couple of years ago, and as I drew nearer, I knew that I should know her, but no name came to my rescue. Here was a woman I knew when she was 8 or 10 up through early 20's and she had not changed a bit. But the context was not right. It was a motel dining room that we were in for the first time, in a town we rarely visited, in an area we had only lived in a year or so. IF we had been knocking on her mother's door, and this girl answered, we'd have called her by name, hugged and kissed, because we had that kind of relationship.

We attended a class of 1961 reunion 45 years later and so the context was pretty good. We had also attended '61 reunions on and off several times, having an opportunity to see how faces had changed. I was even on the lookout for one woman who was then age 63 or so, but when we had a chance to talk, I didn't recognize her. At that same reunion I saw another student whom I would have recognized anywhere because she had changed so little. Thus, we have the factor of how people change. When I knew these students, I was about the same weight, but as yet no glasses, black hair, lots of it, and curly! It's been replaced by white and a beard, and mostly gone!

I could cite the case of where I recall the names of five or six professors* from the U. of Illinois, 1949-1952, yet daughter Donna says she doesn't think she ever HAD a professor there, years 1967-70. Yes, by then the use of "teaching assistants" had grown...but that much? Or, is the difference in part because I was 22-25, and she 18-21? Or that we were all men? Or that I had been to war? Or that we are different in personalities? (Oh, yeah...all of the above?)
*Jimmy McCrimmon, E. Thayer Curry, Lee Hultzen, Richard Murphy, and Prof. Scott.

I think it would be great fun to sit down with a group of people fascinated by memory just to exchange experiences, views, and theories. (Central Florida would be suitable. Maybe a college?)