What sort of memory?

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Autobiographical memories

They're specific and personal and they involve the senses. Jenni Murray gives a lovely example.

An example

When I was little, living at home with my mother we had a daily pattern. Noisy work was done in the morning. Monday was washday and my grandmother used to come up every Monday morning because she refused to have her own washing machine, partly, I think, because it kept her in with my Mum.

Grandma would bring her washing up and her and mum would always argue in the kitchen. We used to have a great big clothes horse that sat in front of the kitchen fire, because it was always rainy outside, and I would sit between the clothes horse and the fire to get away from all the noise.

And then we'd have lunch and Monday's was always something made up from leftovers on a Sunday. Like overcooked beef done in gravy and onions, yuck. But then after lunch we would sit down and listen to the radio.

First, it was Listen with Mother, at a quarter to two. I used to sit on a poof, right next to the big Bush radio. And then there was Woman's Hour with Marjorie Anderson. I remember there were certain times, I was maybe three or four, when mother would say, "Jennifer, you can go out and play now". They used to do was give a health warning that the show may not have been suitable for young persons when they were talking about the menopause, or sex, or homosexuality - all those sort of racy items that Woman's Hour was the first to do.

My Mum wouldn't let me listen. Little did she know that one day I would be talking about those self same subjects..