After how many burns do the memories blend together?

[MikeVDS]

I am just wondering at what point the burns started to all blend together for everyone. ?

Mine are pretty clear in my head. There have been big differences for most of my burns though. I have been going since 2006, in 2007 my wife was pregnant, in 2011 we missed the burn due to my sons birth (a few days after but he was due). Every year our camp does something significantly different, my kids are significantly different and so far I can remember art and events and most things are clearly from a particular burn (I am also sober at the burns).

[BBadger]

Next year's memories were better.

[gaminwench]

I can't remember ...

[Captain Goddammit]

You know, most of my BM memories are "time stamped" to the year, now that you made me think about it.

[GreyCoyote]

One. Seriously.

[AntiM]

All one big burn. Never-ending, with breaks in between. And the BDV year, the Booby year, First Year, FLoating Year, HUshville Calcutta Year, Cancer Year. Death years when we lost family. Conclave Years.

[Eric]

Mine are all fairly separate in my head, and based off where our camp was (my brain works like a cartographer some times).

[Casanova]

They should be different. Hopefully people don't burn the same year after year. Each year (for me) is a different experience. Try to join a different camp every year.

[Ano]

Camp memories can be easily separated, and I can separate some memories based on what clothes I had on, but some things all blend together. The weird little fleeting moments, in my mind, cannot be placed to a year. Only heading in to year four, myself.

[Dr. Pyro]

After two or three years they all blend together. You've seen one burn, you seen 'em all. If I had my way I'd leave Saturday mid-afternoon, go to Reno, watch the burn on the internet, and be done with it. But Blowphish won't let me so I guess you're stuck with me until Sunday.

[1durphul]

Mine are all fairly separate in my head, and based off where our camp was (my brain works like a cartographer some times).

Same here. The only two years I confuse happen to be the two years our camp was placed in the same spot and our structures were oriented in the same way.

[Elderberry]

Just wait, when you start approaching that certain age, everything starts bluring together.

[tatonka]

Been only to one and that was last years , so all of the memories tie into 2013 Im sure.

[Savannah]

My Burns don't blend together because all of my Burns have been different. Different camping locations, which inevitably reminds me of the weather we had during the setup and during the week, and therefore the storms we danced in & the shelters we used, and of course the different campmates, from which stemmed different kinds of adventures, different kinds of volunteer work, etc.

I also tend to write about my Burns, which means if I really have trouble separating 2009 from 2010, I can go back and look at my travel journal, but I rarely need to, 'cause it's easy to remember that in 2009 I traveled with one of my best girlfriends and we camped as a duo as Duckstar Camp and had a really awesome neighbor named Rob and then we absorbed two Russians who came in halfway through the week, and I did my first Greeter shift, so there are tons of memories surrounding those people and circumstances. Whereas in 2010 was totally different because I traveled with my friend Motz but camped nearby by myself, which reminds me of those first early nights with no other tents around me and how it rained several times that week and right before my first ESD shifts (which reminds me of people I met that year) and oh yeah, the Burn happened right before a whiteout descended & it got cold as hell 3 nights . . . and so memories are all traced back to those things and trickle away from those major circumstances like tree branches, into smaller and smaller little funny memories.

So I guess there isn't too much blurring, which is somewhat of a surprise. But I'm glad I write about that stuff anyway.

[AntiM]

I;d have to give up my project to have a different camp each year. Our camp has a big footprint, which is a lot to ask of a village new to us, and I am not comfy with going for independent placement. We do meet theme camp numbers, but barely. That the Booby Bar and BDV took us in was amazing, but not a process I'd enjoy doing each year.

[robbidobbs]

I'm sort of able to catagorize them by what shit storm hit that year. Otherwise, it's all a blur of bacon & sparkleponies.

[Sham]

I hope that when I get old and infirm, I will be able to shuffle all photos of my many years on the playa, and relive it as one big wonderful memory.

[Zhust]

Every year I've gone, I've done it differently. But I think that even if I tried to create exactly the same experience one year to the next, there would be no way it would be the same.

So then I wonder if I can recall any experience that could have been any year. One was when I was drinking from a bottle of cheap bourbon and I was cursing the booze for ruining my life ... that could have been any of my first few years. And then the year I kept running into the mime swarms ... dunno when that was exactly, although also in my first three Burns or so.

Some of these I could clear up by reading journals and accounts I wrote of the trips. But not every detail makes it to the journal. So I guess the "plot summary" of the trips is very clear by year—the year I worked on the temple, for instance. And any event related to some object or person can be tied to a specific year—if I was with a particular person, or had a particular costume. And then of course interacting with some specific installation—like the year of Crude Awakening.

But things like getting stuck in a dust storm, or when someone appeared with either orange juice (or was it mimosas when I was drinking?) one morning in deep Playa are all a wonderful mishmash of any year.

Now I'm going to go read some journal entries from the early years ...

[mdmf007]

this is number 14 and while lots of evenings blend into one another - like, was I drinking pomegranate and goose with the super interesting Russian gymnasts in 2008 or 9? then there are the big events like the slide of death the oil derrick, early burn, the broken femur, the Italian dude that went crazy, Hash House Red dress run. Things like that stick out easy peasy for me. That and I have 8-10000 photos in my BMAN folder in sub folders by year to remind me.

[Aurelia]

Original Burner here.

All of the years are different...
I could, and do, have many stories.
Even hail storm one year.

But truth to tell ; I simply live the burn always now
as it has become too difficult to return to the default world.

xoA.

[Ratty]

It all blends into one beautiful technicolor movie for me. I used to remember all my elementary school teachers but my brain is full.

a serendipity, Do you know an old time burner named Dan Miller? He went to the Playa on about the 3rd year it was in the desert and was never seen again. My friends suspect he started living and working 'burning man' year round somehow.

[Aurelia]

Ratty,
maybe that

xoA

[Aurelia]

Ratty, I just asked my first son and he is in a grumpy mood and didn't want to bother thinking about joy because he no longer goes (I tell him I am holding his place). He says he does not know him.

xoA.

[DrYes]

Every Burn has been distinctly different for me so far (this year will be #5) and I also make a little video after each Burn, cementing that year's experiences as being from that year in my mind.

[theCryptofishist]

One.

[--Ever--]

Been to about 8 burns over 11 years. I don't have the greatest memory in general, but I can separate a few specifics from each event. Things like where I camped, who with, art installations.

[TomServo]

13 burns in 15 years..plus a few 4ths... The first few are as clear as day...as are the last few...the middle ones are muddled.

[Major Krash]

2 or 3 for me...but important things are always "time-stamped" in some way so I can figure out what year it was (generally based on art projects of friends)....however for me, there were also vivid dreams of BM that, with passing years, are beginning to blur more and more with the real memories (or are they real memories?)...and that is just with excessive alcohol consumption (and lack of sleep)...I shudder to imagine what it must be like for some people!

[Aurelia]

Original here
I do not use alcohol
For me the years never blend
It is a memory of each love one finds
xoA.

[robbidobbs]

This year will be forever emblazoned in my mind as the year of explosive evolution both personally, artistically, and professionally. Stay tuned, the growth spurt is going to be exciting!