I could have sworn I lived in this University city for 3 years - so why couldn't I really remember it when I went back...after 34 years!

[cakeorwine]

DS and I recently were in the area of my old University city - so we had a look at the campus and then drove into town. Campus has changed a lot - more development. But when we were in town, I couldn't really remember it much.

It's a historic city. Obviously been development since I was there but not too much. Yet, I couldn't really remember it.

Yet I lived there for 3 years. I went into the town quite a bit. I obviously knew it quite well back then.

But it was 1988 - 91. So a long time ago.

Has anyone else lived anywhere but completely forgotten its layout after a long time when you went back?

The town where I spent my teens has had it's road network reorganised some years ago and I now cannot remember what it looked like before or navigate them now without using sat nav....
In the 90's me and my friends took a little old lady acquaintance up to the North to revisit the place where she had grown up and moved away from when she was a young adult (not the sole reason for the trip but a nice gesture): she couldn't remember where it was and we couldn't find it (pre-sat nav)!
Though this sort of thing features in the novel Silas Marner, so perhaps not unusual

I remember doing laundry, no idea how i dried anything - and I have no idea what I ate for lunch in the first year. I was in a catered hall and didn't have access to a kitchen or fridge, was on campus 30 hours a week - I must have bought lunch but I didn't have money either so did I just starve? No idea. I asked my bff from halls and the same course and she couldn't remember either.

Went back to the city for my DC's open days and it was almost the same, the campus was very familiar but the halls of residence were totally different. Or called something different. Or both.

I went back to my sixth form college - the entrance way had changed, the whole road structure too. The college used to be in a copse of trees and have huge playing fields and all the was gone. The school hall wasn’t there, the art block had gone and they no longer taught one of my a level subjects.

NB it’s decades since I went there 🤣

I remember doing laundry because it was lovely and warm in the winter and some of us used to gather for heat. It led to one memorable day when a condom was seen mysteriously floating round and we all waited to see what cheapskate was attempting to wash and reuse it 🤢

I can't find my way around my home town anymore. I haven't lived there for 24 years and it's had some major developments. Also I was a teenager when I left, so I realised I only used very set routes!

Maybe we all went round in smelly clothes as I don’t remember washing and drying clothes either. I can’t see me going to a launderette but maybe I did!

No, I have it pretty clearly in my head and it’s much the same.

However my memory is a total blank on many things, so I wouldn’t worry about it pp

I used to wash clothes in the sink rather than go to the laundry in the first year for some reason. Then dry them in the room. I remember a drying room in the last year, simply because there was a laundry liquid I really liked the smell of, so it stuck in my mind

Do you think as a student you got there on the train? I also went to uni in a historic city at the same time as you - I haven’t been back in many years but my sister went last year and honestly I didn’t recognise anything from the photos at all. Which is weird as I was there 4 years. But I wonder if things like driving through gates would feel different now as I did everything on foot, by train or by bus.

I remember the smell of the laundry room in my first year of university. I also remember the battles for the washing machine in year 3 and 4 as I lived in a house of 6 student nurses who only had 2 uniforms each.

This thread is reassuring. Not just me whose forgotten a lot of stuff from the old days!!

I was in halls for two years so had a launderette in the next building. In my second year I was in a house with a washing machine so it was never that difficult to get things washed. My final year was harder because I was in a university house with no washing machine. There was a hall of residence opposite so I was able to use the launderette there but it was about once a term, so yes, I probably stank!

Same, Exeter. I couldn’t remember how to get from the city centre to the riverside when I took the family back.

I think when at a different time of life you didn’t look at things in the same way. Eg as a tourist now I’d look at the old buildings, but I wasn’t paying attention to that as a student, I’d just be walking to the supermarket and back. We weren’t hanging round in coffee shops watching the world go by. Socialising was specific pubs or clubs, with a walk there chatting with friends, in the dark, and a drunken walk back.

Plus I spent my last year living on campus and probably rarely left it.

I do remember the laundrette though!

Yes, this year re-visited the city one of my kids was born in 44 years ago. We lived a few miles outside the city but shopped there, went to some of the museums. Couldn’t find my way around, didn’t recognise any of the roads and was very surprised to see a race course so close to the city. Never seen that before!

I was at university in the early 80s and couldn't recognise the city at all when I went back about 5 years ago.
Laundry - yes! I've often said that I have no memory of doing laundry. I can actually picture the laundry room in 1st year halls but I have no memory of doing any washing. We were given a clean sheet each week so maybe I had a clean bed but dirty clothes.
In 2nd year we had no machine so I must have gone to a laundrette but have no memory of it. In third year we had an ancient twin tub & I do remember using that once or twice because I remember having to set it up each time.
Maybe I mostly saved up clothes & took them home?

I was having this very conversation with my son!

I remember there was a laundry room in halls but I don't remember ever using it. I thought that quite recently, as I seem to spend all my time doing laundry now! I do remember saving up 20p coins though, so I suppose I must have used it and just forgotten.

I know I didn't used to eat lunch on campus - I would have toast in the halls canteen, get the bus into uni, not eat all day (because no money) and get home in time for dinner in halls in the evening. I don't remember feeling hungry, and I walked everywhere. This probably explains why I'm about five stone heavier now 😂

Haha Im the same about laundry. I think i must have used a tumble drier but I dont remember everything getting ruined like in modern tumblers, colour fade, elastic gone etc.

I used to live near Cambridge in the early 90s - and definitely went there for shopping.
We went there recently - obviously never did the touristy thing as the colleges seemed a surprise to me!

when I was at University up north it was £5 for a heavy duty black bag stuffed full of dirty laundry washed dried and brought back so I made sure I had enough pants for a month! Was an absolute bargain

I only remember the laundry in first year halls because there was one evening a group of us decided to see if one of our smaller friends could fit inside one of the machines 🙄 (she did). I think you recall the salient moments and the mundane just disappear from memory.

You've just given me a flashback to using a twin tub. I've no idea where or when though. I also have amnesia about doing washing at university.

York by any chance?!

Not York.

That's where I live now. I think I like old cities with walls and cathedrals

I remember the washing machine in halls. And that's it. I have no recollection of using a washing machine for the remaining two years at uni! How is it that washing consumed so little of my thoughts and now, putting a wash on is a highlight of my day.