I've surely had my relatively mild (I think?) case of faceblindness my whole life

[conuly]

but I just suddenly was struck by the fact that the earliest I can remember it mattering - the first time I can remember even thinking that perhaps there was something strange about how, or even whether, I recognized people - was the day my father died.

I was waiting at the bus stop to be picked up, and instead of my father it was a strange man, who said that there was a problem and I was supposed to go to our dance school to wait. Naturally I walked rather than riding in his car.

He was the husband of one of the dance teachers. I'd certainly seen him before, at the studio. I just didn't recognize him.

If my father suddenly popped up here and now, looking just the way he did the last time I saw him, there's even odds that I wouldn't recognize him either. I wouldn't be expecting him, after all, and with no context my ability to identify people goes way down.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Oh, ouch. I think about this a lot. I don't so much have faceblindness as I tend to have...something. Where I see people who look like someone who is definitely dead and I'm convinced it's that person.

[spiffikins]

I definitely require context to recognize people!

We had a regular a/c tech who worked in our building and in our suite for years - really nice guy, and SUPER recognizable given that he was probably 6 foot 7 - not a lot of tall lanky guys walking around like that!

And then one day in a shopping center parking lot, this TOTAL STRANGER is calling my name and waving and it took me SO LONG to clue in who he was! I've walked past people I've known for 20+ years, in Costco, because I'm not really LOOKING at people other than to make sure I don't bump into them, LOL

The worst is all the people from the pool - I do not recognize them with clothes on! Everyone in the pool has their hair pulled back or in a hat, wearing sunglasses and a bathing suit, and we're in deep water - so all I really see is shoulders, chest, neck and chin, LOL

[adafrog]

Context definitely plays a big part.

[cellio]

Context makes a huge difference. I once failed to recognize one of our rabbis in the grocery store, even though I do know that rabbis need to buy food too.