Forgetting and remembering

Back in 2007 I wrote a post about maternity clothes.  I'd forgotten about it completely until I happened to pick up on it just now. 

It was written while we were in England, but I have no idea what hotel it was that we were staying at, at the time.  In fact, I can't remember the incident at all.   We'd met a man from Edinburgh who had eight children - the oldest was 23 and was working with his father; the youngest was 17 months old.   Furthermore one of his older daughters was expecting a child who would then have an aunt only a couple of years older than her.  They'd make good companions - and have some difficulties explaining their relationship, I expect!

It's odd that this story means nothing to me; if I hadn't written it down, it would have gone completely from my head, in spite of the fact that according to some sources we're supposed to remember everything that's happened to us.  I think these sources may be exaggerating.  It's much more likely we forget as much as we remember, otherwise we'd go crazy.   There are some people who are supposed to remember everything - there was a group of them on TV recently - but I think (as my wife noted) it's more likely they remember a great deal about certain subjects and very little about what most of us forget (like how many times we went to the loo yesterday, or the day before, for instance).   Some things become so commonplace that the mind has no reason to remember them, and wisely gets rid of that excess stuff. 

PS I've just checked with my wife: she can't remember this incident either.....!