Some memories stay with you, and you don't even realize it.
I was just leafing through some web pages when I came across this one, wherein the author speaks bitterly of events that took place while he was at Keesler Technical Training Center, at Keesler AFB, in 1984. I was astonished -- twenty years ago, and he's still pissed? And then I thought about it.
As it happens, I went to Keesler, too, though much earlier -- around 1969. I went to learn how to repair aircraft radios (which I got competent but never particularly good at). The structure of the student environment was simultaneously relaxed and rigid. Relaxed, relative to Air Force basic training, which we'd individually just escaped; though basic wasn't difficult, objectively (certainly not as difficult as other branches), it wasn't a lot of fun to have all of your life regimented. At Keesler, there was much less of that -- you were there to learn technical material, not to learn to march, the code of conduct, or how to salute. But it was also rigid: you didn't walk to class, you marched; you had to clean your room to inspection standards, even though the inspections were for the most part infrequent and casual (except for the people in the drill team barracks, which was a whole different environment). And then there were the ropes.
Each group of airmen was a flight, and each flight was assigned a 'rope' -- an airman selected to be responsible for the flight. This airman was distinguished by wearing a green aiguillette (here's a page with a sample, from a completely different organization). A group of flights was directed, overall, by an airman of some seniority who would wear a yellow aiguillette, and the group of yellow wearers all reported to one wearer of a red aiguillette, who reported to the squadron commander (I think; I never hung around that rarefied atmosphere). These worthies were called the green ropes, yellow ropes, and red ropes.
Since I was not much of a military type, I had no chance in the world of being a red rope; even yellow was pretty far beyond my grasp. But green, though -- that seemed possible. Unfortunately for me, I made the mistake of mentioning to someone that I'd like to do that, and after a bit they decided it would be fun to tell me that I had, in fact, been selected, and held a little ceremony to pin it on. I didn't know what to make of it, but I was totally unsuspicious. Which, as it turned out, I should have been. I still remember how I felt when I found out that I'd been the butt of the joke.
So yeah, I can understand why people might remember something like that, decades later.
4 comments:
I often wonder what stories like that will stick with me, both good and bad.
Usually stories where I have been embarrassed tend to stick with me sadly.
On another random note, you were in my dream last night! We only met briefly, but I thought I'd just mention it.
I don't tend to dwell on the past, but apparently the memories linger on. I suppose, from what little I know about the process of forming memories, if there was an associated scent, its even more likely I'd remember. And indeed, when I pass a batch of wet mud (great heaping piles with water gurgling down its slopes,you understand, such as at a rained-out construction site), I recall passing a derrick on a muddy lot when I was, oh, about eight. I mean, I can see it.
Briefly, huh? Did it look like me?
Yes, scent is the strongest sense tied to memory. In fact it is one of my favorite senses for whatever reason, I really enjoy smells hah. I have plenty of stories tied to scent.
Yeah it looked like you, as much as I can tell from the photo haha. Oddly enough I think you were wearing a red shirt like in your photo.
So if you catch a cold, all your memories are pallid and dull, right? Well, perhaps that might be stretching it... As I recall, the concept of scent as a trigger for memory is basal, and is believed to come from the idea that our ancestors survived partially by knowing what safe food smelled like. Now, of course, we use it to evaluate the nose of a wine.... I don't think thats what they had in mind!
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