Forgotten

For example, new neighbors can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on how loud they play their music or how rambunctious their children are. Change is difficult to accept, and what is new is often mistaken for bad. But sometimes a fresh face is just what a sleepy town needs to jolt it wake, and that's exactly what one small English town got in eighteen seventeen when Almondsbury welcomed a certain royal figure. It began when a local cobbler

found a strange young woman on his doorstep. Her clothes made it clear she was not from around town. She wore what people at the time had described as exotic, including a turban which had been wrapped around her head. The cobbler asked if there was anything he could do to help the struggling young woman. She replied in a language he had never heard before, but through hand gestures, she was able to convey that she was in need of food and shelter, which was also evident by her condition.

She was dirty and disoriented, as though she had been out on her own for quite a long time. Since he could not communicate with her in any meaningful way, the cobbler took the woman to see Samuel Warrel, the town's overseer of the poor. Now, the overseers job was to help those in need on behalf of the government. People in this role often provided financial assistance, food, and clothing to individuals without the means. Woman was able to

tell Worrel and his wife two things. First, she pointed at a picture of a pineapple and said ananas, a word that translated to pineapple in multiple languages, including Indonesian. She also used the word Caribou, which they determined to be her name. It was believed that she had come

to Almondsbury from China. Caribou showed that she enjoyed drinking tea and ate only vegetables as well, but that was all they knew about her, and without anything else to go on, Mr Warrell brought her to the police, believing she was a beggar only out for money. Then she was held for several days until she met a Portuguese sailor named Manuel Anesso. He claimed he could speak the

woman's native tongue and even translated for the authorities. Anesso listened to her story, a roller coaster tale about how she found her way to England. She was Princess Caribou of Javasu, a tiny island somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Her father had come from China and was quite wealthy, while her mother had been killed when she was a little girl. The woman had been walking in her garden

by herself when she was taken by pirates. They stayed on their ship until it reached Bristol Channel, when she jumped overboard and swam to the shore. Her story was published in the local newspapers and she became quite the celebrity. Her prison cell was replaced with a warm bed. She danced, prayed to a god named a La Tala, swam in lakes in the nude, all of which was observed by her new hosts as unique behaviors from a culture they'd

never seen before. She also demonstrated her skills and archery and fencing. Cariboos fame led her to receiving the royal treatment as well. Not only was a ball held in her honor, but she also had a portrait of herself painted, which was then published by the press, so the rest of England could know the mysterious Princess Caribou a little better. Unfortunately, her portrait made her even more of a celebrity, and not in the way she had hoped. A woman who

ran a boarding house in Bristol wreck ignized Caribou. The landlady had given her a place to stay months earlier and called her out on her ruse. Suddenly the princess knew how to speak perfect English. It turned out that Princess Cariboo hadn't come from an island in the Indian Ocean after all, nor was her father a member of Chinese high society. Her name was Mary Baker and she had been a servant. She had invented the persona of Princess Cariboo as a way to break out of her

working class life, which she certainly did. Mary left England for America, a trip furnished by Mrs Warrell. She lived there for seven years until she finally returned home to England, where she lived out the rest of her life, selling of all things leeches. Leeches were often used for medical purposes, such as the removal of toxins through the blood. Mary Baker manufactured and identity to seem interesting to the people

who had shunned her before. Sadly, despite her notoriety, she died in relative obscurity in eighteen sixty four, and she was aried in a small cemetery in an unmarked grave. Our lives are a collection of events and memories, the things that shape us into who we become. Opening a coveted toy on Christmas, a first kiss, turning the key on a first home. These are the occasions we treasure and look back on through the years. But what happens

when you lose those memories? What happens when the people you know become strangers to you and you no longer recognize the places you go every day? For one English musician, he learns the answers to those questions every thirty seconds. Clive Wearing was born in the UK in nineteen. Much of his career was dedicated to studying and teaching the music of the Sight and twenty centuries. During his active years, he formed large ensembles sung in quis and perform all

over Europe. However, in Wearing contracted a virus that affected his central nervous system and, perhaps more importantly, his brain, the hippocampus to be exact, the part of the brain that dealt with memory. Wearing recovered from the illness, but it left him with a terrible side effect. He was no longer able to make new memories. He was diagnosed with a condition known as entarograde amnesia, and in short, it means that every thirty seconds his mental slate was

wiped clean. To this day, he holds no recollection of what transpired only half a minute ago. As his wife once described it, he did not seem to be able to retain any impression of anything for more than a blink. Indeed, if he did blink, his eyelids parted to reveal a new scene. When the symptoms first presented, Wearing believed that he had woken up from a coma, or that he'd been dead and resurrected. If someone handed him an object. Seconds later, he'd looked down at it, amazed that it

had miraculously appeared in his palm out of nowhere. People he met became strangers in an instant, and he often found himself stopping in the middle of conversations, only to restart them again from the beginning. He would even reintroduce himself to the people he was speaking too. Sadly, Wearing was also diagnosed with another condition called retrograde amnesia. Unlike the terrograde variety, which prevented him from forming new memories,

retrograde amnesia affected his past memories as well. Vast portions of his upbringing, his career, even memories of his children were erased. For example, he knows he has children from his first wife, but he is unable to remember their names, and each time his mind resets, he is filled with a rush of love for his second wife, whom he married a year before the illness set in. He knows that she is important to him, but her name escapes him. Yet every few seconds he meets her for the first

time all over again, and his love is renewed. But not all of his past life is lost. He is aware of his past as a musician, and that he had a musical edge. Cation In fact, sit him at a piano and he can play it perfectly, even long and difficult compositions from years back. His muscle memory is

still very much intact. He also knows the names of foods he likes, but he can no longer associate their tastes, meaning when he eats chicken, he knows he's eating chicken, but not what chicken is supposed to taste like until

it touches his tongue and wearing. Has the ability to learn new things despite his lack of short and long term memory, but despite watching a video every day, he can anticipate certain things happening on subsequent viewings, though he doesn't know why, and he's able to learn certain new skills by performing the same action over and over again. He is aware of the layout of his home as he moves through it, but don't try asking him to

describe it. He lives his life as a series of patterns and routines, like getting ready in the morning and dressing himself. His brain just knows how to do certain things, despite his inability to explain them in words or why he has that knowledge. It sounds difficult, to say the least, especially for those around him. Living with a condition that reboots one's brain after thirty seconds can be exhausting, But for Clive Wearing, there is a silver lining. Every minute

is a fresh start. Every minute is the first day of the rest of his life. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore

dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye