There was a time when I thought my Grandmother had a “Photographic Memory”.
She had an uncanny ability to recall family interactions to the DATE and also was used to settle arguments about when some event occurred (or did not occur).
Years later, when pressed, she revealed her “secret”. She had a small desktop calendar that was on the Phone Table (she had a table specifically dedicated to the phone and the calendar).
On that calendar she would mark the Low and High Temperature for the day and also whoever “called” that day. There was not room for much more. She kept all the calendars in a drawer.
She really did not do anything else so this was the primary focus of much of her adult life after all the kids left. Every Day.
When we asked her how she could recall some Event that was NOT on the calendar, it was usually something like “Well my sister called on Monday and then Bob called on Thursday and I recall that we talked about this “Event” on Thursday but it didn’t happen that day. So it must have been earlier. But I didn’t talk about it with my Sister on Monday so it must have happened Tuesday or Wednesday of that week”.
Which makes sense. But she also seemed to remember all the weather info as well. Which was kind of odd. Still, she was the go-to source for settling “WHEN” something happened that no one could agree on. If anyone doubted her, she would pull out the calendars from the drawer and find the date in question. She was always Spot-On.
