Does This Happen to Other People?

I've had this strange thing happen to me many times throughout my life.

I will get a STRONG memory that I cannot shake. It's not anything bad, usually it's something enjoyable.

For years we have gone to an antique mall in Wisconsin. It's in an old school building. I don't even have to close my eyes, and I can go there. I see EVERYTHING just how it was the day the memory first stuck. I've been there since, and it has changed some, but I can ALWAYS see it just how it was that first time.

Last week, while wandering around in my hot kitchen, I had a memory of my former kitchen. It was a particular day. A humid day. In my memory I was smacking open the cupboard doors from the inside, because they would stick when it got really humid. I could see myself lining up all of the stuff I had just bought at the grocery store. A dog and cat tripping around my feet. It is UNBELIEVABLY detailed. The lighting, the smell, how everything looked - but it never varies. The sharply recalled memory only goes so far, I cannot make it go farther ahead, or reverse it.

Another one is from this house. Back when our bedroom was a very light shade of green. Daughter and I were taking pictures, I'm not even sure why. Maybe we had just painted it. Whatever the reason, I can see her sitting on a white chair at a white little table in front of the window. It's almost as if I could reach out and touch her right now. We are both laughing about something. I can still hear her laugh.

I'm interested in what makes what seems like such a random memory stand out from all the others.

If I were Emily in "Our Town" are these the scenes I would return to?

I have wonderful memories of our wedding (although i still have not found our pictures!) but the most detailed memory I have is from a few hours before, while I was home alone getting ready while my parents were at the church. My Great Uncle Sid came to drop off a wedding present. I had the most pleasant conversation with him. I remember it so clearly. But, HOW I actually got to the church, I haven't a clue.

Now that my mother is struggling with dementia it's become apparent that her memory isn't so much a sequence of events as it is a flat plain with everything in her memory jumbled up altogether. She seems truly astounded sometimes that I don't know people that she knew long ago.

What is it that keeps my memory of the antique mall, my old kitchen, Daughter and Great Uncle Sid clearly divided?

Someday will Great Uncle Sid appear at the antique mall? Will Daughter enter the scene just before the wedding, even though she wasn't born yet?

I wonder.