Ask HN: How good (or bad) is your memory?

Prompted by David Lynch's passing, a friend messaged me: "Remember when we watched Blue Velvet in the artsy Milwaukee cinema?"

Nope… I have no recollection of that event, or the movie.

This isn't a surprise. I will watch movies and write reviews of them in my journal, and 18 months later have no recollection of ever seeing it, and reading the review brings little to nothing back. I'm used to it, and this has been me for decades. I have few memories of my wedding, or when my kids were young (like, 5-8 years ago), etc. I'll spend a week somewhere on vacation and barely recall more than "I was there". I don't like taking too many pictures because it can be frustrating to see myself in places that I have no recollection of (or that I'd even gone there). Sometimes its embarrassing, like when I'll recommend some place and then the person I'm talking too tells me we visited it together.

This rarely bugs me though, which surprises some folks. I live very much "now" and eschew most nostalgia. My wife has a good memory, but it comes with a burden of bad/painful experiences hanging around. e.g. she'll have a sour view of someone, but it's for something they said 10+ years ago. OTOH I literally rely on the fact that I'll forget many irritating things in days or weeks.

HN seems to be interested in memory-related stories, and I'm curious how folks view their own memory, good or bad, and whether its something they think much about, struggle with, etc.