<I’m 57 and I remember the names of kids I went to kindergarten with. Everyone is remembered by at least a half dozen people.
I don’t remember the kindergarten folks (we moved around a lot, Air Force), but I remember most of the people in the 8th grade (our graduating grade school class), and my small girls’ high school. I remember maybe 20 from college and have found a few of them on FaceBook - they all remembered me when I messaged them. There is no way that if my name came before the public, that somebody, somewhere, wouldn’t remember me.
Usually there are public interest stories in magazines - fluff like, “The President was my roommate” or some such. How come no one has come forward to talk about this guy, even if it is in a supportive way? It seems awfully strange to me...
Exactly! You would have to lead a very hermitish life for no one to remember you at all. Hard to do and attend college courses. I went to CU in Boulder for one year and had two roommates. One each semester. I can only remember the first name of the second one but if either of their names were published now I would immediately recognize them and think "that was my college roommate's name."
From that one year there are probably 20 others whose names I would recognize who lived in my dorm, I shared a class with or I met in some other setting. None of them did anything outstanding to be remembered by I just spent some time around them. If any of them became famous now a lot more memories would come flooding back.