Moments to remember

I was reading some reviews of the new film United 93 which is supposed to tell the tale of the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11 and it made me think about the things you are supposed to take down, imprint in your memory ready to dredge up if anyone asks.

People of a certain generation can apparently reel off exactly where they were when a number of "legendary" people, for example John Lennon or Elvis Presley, died.

I'm not of that generation but there are a few epoch-making moments when I can remember what I was doing when I heard the news.

I was alive when the Berlin wall came down, and during the Live Aid concerts. But I don't remember the events - just being told about them and the images in my head are acquired, rather than actual memories.

So the first biggie, I suppose, was the death of Princess Diana. My brother told me she had died, after I had just got up on a Sunday morning. I told him to stop making things up and went to the loo, but it soon became clear he was telling the truth. Other things I remember about that day? Being really annoyed that instead of playing the Top 40 countdown, all I could listen to on any radio station was funeral dirge.

Before that, I remember when our Tory MP in Newbury was defeated in a by-election by the Lib Dem guy, David Randall. This was A BIG THING cos it was one of those bluer than blue seats and my parents talked about it a lot. Probably my first strong political memory.

I also have a clear memory of reading about when we sent forces into Chechnya and being scared about being at war. I don't think I really understood then (I guess I was about 16) that we never really haven't been at war since long before I was born.

Obviously, I remember finding out about the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Again, my brother told me (bit of a pattern here?) as he had heard it in the radio when he was driving back from somewhere. Again, I didn't believe him until I saw it on the telly. Me and my mum had to go into town shortly afterwards - and we saw the second plane crashing into the towers through the window at Dixons. It was a pretty surreal moment because the town seemed virtually deserted - everyone was glued to their tellyboxes. My brother tossed around a few conspiracy theories about it being the end of the world and a direct result of the millennium bug kicking in rather later than anyone expected.

I'm not sure when I found out about the Asian tsunami earthquake but it was at some point the same day. The details of what I read/saw afterwards are clear, but not the moment I heard the news.

And the London bombings last July? I was at work and one of the ad reps came in and told us to switch on the telly. We watched in silence then I had the bbc website on a loop for the rest of the day. I remember feeling proud about how well we, the general public, were dealing with it. We also switched the tv on in the office (a fairly rare event except when horse-racing is on - not my choice) earlier in the week to see the 2012 Olympics being awarded to London. Then, we all cheered. The contrast was pretty stark.

So why are these things in my memory? Did I take note of what I was doing when Hurricane Katrina devastated America? Or the Indian earthquake? Or when it became clear about the genocide in Kosovo, or the famine in the Sudan? Is it imprinted on my memory because the media have told me to take note? Or did I select the things which mattered most to me?

In fairness, it would be difficult for me to clearly remember a lot of the things which happened when I was very young and as I grow older and more interested in the world I am bound to pay more attention. But still, under whose agenda am I making my memories?

That said, I may not remember all those things. But my memories are crystal clear of the day I met my beautiful niece for the first time; the day I picked up my GCSE results; the day I saw my grandfather die; how I felt when Blur beat Oasis to the top spot with Country House.

You can't help but remember the things that are important to you. And those things will change as your priorities change. So while the media helps you acquire memories about things, you decide whether or not to discard them.

Of course, there are many other memories that I would just as happily forget.

More on that story later.