It’s a somewhat common experience to zone out while driving and not remember how you got from points A to B. However, is it just as common to “wake up” from being zoned out between points A and B and momentarily forget that you’re in New(ish) Location and not lost in your Old Location (hometown). Or say someone asks you for directions someplace and you give them directions how to get there based on a different location you lived? I’ve been living in the Midwest US for 12 years now and still occasionally give directions or think I’m still on the East Coast.
I moved away from my home town, lived in many places, then settled into a new home town. For the most part, no, since the places have been too different.
However, yeah, I drove on autopilot in my home town for many years after I left. Up until I went through a red light that was never there before. Never again
No, but i completely can’t remember things about places I used to live. Lived in the US in one city for a decade. Drove around it every single day. I don’t think I could find my old work, most of my friends’, or any of the places I’d want to get food at this point lol. Out of sight, out of mind?
I’m 54, not a military kid, just a genX that had hippie parents.
I’ve lived in 13 different states. Went to a different school every year, sometimes a couple of different schools in one year.
When people ask for directions, i tell them to use maps.
When I tell people that I use a GPS app, they almost always insist that it’s easier for me to just head down about a quarter mile south on Aniston Street (if you crossed the train tracks, you’ve gone too far) and make a left on Evansdale, it’s the one with the tree branches covering the stop sign. From there you’re just going to get on the nearest ramp for the express way and get off on 257. Now remember, 257’s exit is actually going to be on your left after about 5 miles, the signs won’t tell you that! Once you take the exit, there’s two burger kings, and you’re gunna wanna turn right after you’ve passed the second one. After that you’ll take your fourth right turn into a large parking lot—you can see the house from there!
Briefly, after moving to a new place after being in the last one for fifteen years. But I don’t ever forget that I’m in the Bay Area. Must be cause I wanted to be here (and away from there) so much.
No, but if anyone asks me where I’m ‘from’ I never really know what the answer is.
Anyone who asks this IRL gets to hear my entire life story, 'cause that’s the only answer I can come up with.
Same! I ended up with a kinda stock answer (“all over the state!”), but that still leads to a story. Which is the point of the question, I guess.
(I’m a preacher’s kid, hence the moving!)
SAME! Like I was born in one place moved when I was two, moved somewhere else till I was 6, moved to another state and then 3 different houses before college in that state… then, then, then.
Where are you from?
A lovely place called Earth.
I thought you were from Ostania.
Shhh… I am, but I need to bring peace to the world.
I have lived long term in 5 countries. There was only one time I forgot that I was in my hometown instead of in my earlier location.
I was on a bus and I felt asleep. When the bus driver woke me up and told me to get off, I said sorry to him in the language of the different country.
Understandable, you were booting up
I accidentally drove to my former house in a different town after work a couple of times
I’m an Eagle Scout. I don’t just know where I am, I know which direction I’m facing and the elevation.
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Not often, but it happens sometimes, usually early before getting out of bed.
I travel a lot as part of my job, I’ve been to 27 countries, and lived long-term in three of them.
When out and about, upon waking up from my alarm I sometimes have to orient myself and remember where I am and why.
I have this too. When I open my eyes, sometimes the room is not what I expected and it takes a couple seconds to register
I’ve accidentally said an old address or telephone number after a move, but more commonly, if I’m traveling in a place I’ve never been before, I’ll see someone and think, is that Bill from work? Of course it never is, because I’m 1000 miles from home, but for a split second I don’t realize how improbable that would be.
Reminds me of a sci-fi story I read. A detective (wait was this in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, maybe? I don’t remember, anyway) is looking for a person and asking around. I stead of carrying around a picture of the person they are looking for, they compare the person’s features to a list of celebrities and just go around asking if anyone has seen someone that looks like that celebrity. Point being lots of people have surprisingly similar features and there really are “doppelgangers” out there.
But just try explaining that to some stranger that just caught you staring off into space directly at their face because they look like a person you had a crush on in college, only you’re an old fart now and they don’t look like that old crush would look now, but like the memory you have of them. “You look like someone I know” always sounds like a pickup line.
I once spent a longer than acceptable amount of time staring at my best friend’s new girlfriend during a movie just because I couldn’t figure out which actress she reminded me of.
It was Sandra Bullock in case you were wondering.
see someone and think, is that Bill from work? Of course it never is, because I’m 1000 miles from home,
Except when it is them. It happens to me surprisingly often, even internationally. I ran into two people from my previous city twice in the last month and a half, purely by chance
I used to commute between Portland and Chicago, 2 weeks here, 2 weeks there, 1 week here, 2 weeks there… back and forth. Did that for a year…
It was not unusual to wake up and not immediately know where I was.
Yes. Usually when waking up or after dozing off. In extreme cases, i sometimes know i am in location A, and yet struggle to accept it — the sounds or smells or something is just too reminiscent of location B.
I can’t say I’ve forgotten where I am, but very occasionally I’ll see a landmark or just a general vibe of a place while driving and get hit with immense deja vu or memories of somewhere I used to live. Then I’ll get on Google maps and look the place up to see how much it’s changed.
Back when I was moving more regularly, yes, but only when I first woke up in the morning.
As others have said, I find it more common when I am traveling short term than when I move from a place to another.
I think part of it is that moving has a strong emotional impact, so I am unlikely to forget about that in my wake time. But my dreams are often set in my hometown, where I haven’t lived in almost 20 years… the brain is weird!
