Wednesday 25 October 2023
Remembering Faces
Yesterday I went out for lunch with some former work colleagues, chaps I’ve known for decades. We often refer to ourselves as a group of old men which we are, but because I’ve aged with them I can’t see a great change in their facial features. I’d recognise them anywhere.
When we recognise and recall faces, we seem to rely on quite a narrow range of features which don’t change much over the years except for children as they grow into adulthood. We know this of course, and we also know that the facial features we use for recognition aren’t necessarily the same from person to person.
Take two of my cousins for example. I’ll call them cousin A and cousin B. When Mrs H and I go on holiday in Devon I sometimes meet up with cousin A because she only lives about an hour from where we stay. This year I emailed a photo of cousin A to cousin B because he hasn’t seen her for decades. After looking at the photo, cousin B thinks cousin A looks like her mother, but I don’t see the similarity, so I assume we are recalling different facial features.
If I try to remember the faces of people I lost touch with fifty odd years ago, I find I recall hair styles and certain facial features, but a more complete image of a face remains elusive. Yet add in a voice and a few hints and I’d probably recognise them if we met again. And we'd both be mildly horrified to see how old we are.
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6 comments:
I went to a school class 25 year reunion. Everyone looked just the same so the changes obviously tend to set in after age 43.
A bloke was there who had been two or three years ahead of us and had later married a classmate of mine. He was the first fellow ever to punch me on a rugby field. Since I now towered over him I reminded him of the fact.
Twenty-odd years ago I had the interesting experience of attending a "70s disco" reunion for the class of '73, when we left school. We were mid to late forties, and I was virtually the only one to have moved away from Luton. The boys had got prized apprenticeships at Vauxhall Motors or lesser jobs in shops and printing, and the girls had mainly become secretaries.
The women were instantly recognisable. They had often had hard lives, coping with divorce, raising children, and struggling to make ends meet. But they had kept their optimism, by and large, along with their figures.
The blokes, though. Often bankrupted by divorce, they had lived between the factory, the bed-sit, and the pub. Somewhere, deep inside these sad obese wheezing wretches, were the blokes I used to have a laugh and play football with.
A la my recent post, AK, when one of my old school mates arrived at the pub, it took about three seconds to recognise him! I guess that my brain had to make allowances for the facts of ageing, what I would probably expect, and compensate for any abberation from the actual recognition process - knowing that he was due to arrive later than us etc., anyway!
I hadn't seen him since 1961, but he was easily recognisable, and oddly enough, I found him more enlightening, conversationally more interesting, and generally more likeable than all those years ago! It was one of those lunches, (we'd long stopped the beer and the chilli con carne), where we just wanted to sit there and carry on a fascinating conversation, forged from mutual friendship and kindness! I really did forget the time, and we didn't break up until nearly 4.00pm!
I hope your reunion was as successful - it sounds as if it was!
I notice nobody mentions that they couldn't remember their old school/work mates names, though I bet it was the case. Certainly is with me. "I'll never forget whatsisname" etc etc.
dearieme - I hope you reminded him with a hefty slap on the back.
Sam - blimey that sounds like a sobering experience. I've never been to a reunion and sometimes wonder how many of my class are still with us. It's almost inevitable that not all of them will be.
Scrobs - that sounds like an uplifting reunion - recognising someone from 1961 is good going. It seems to be something to do with facial expressions rather than anything you can pin down.
Peter - I'm not too bad with names, but as everyone was addressed by their surname I'd probably have a problem with first names. The forgotten name problem seems quite common though. While browsing online I've seen a number of class photos with gaps in the names because the person posting the photo online had forgotten some of them.
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