Saturday, September 15, 2007

What Color is the number 3?

Ever since I was a kid, I have been able to remember numbers easily. Especially phone numbers. My mother would be quick to tell you that this is because I dial them so often. Yes, I am something of a telephone junkie.
But it wasn't until I was older that I realized that my way of remembering numbers is unique to me. In my mind, each number logically has a corresponding color.

0 is black (absence of color, absence of number)
1 is white (simple, heroic, clean)
2 is baby blue (it rhymes)
3 is green (it sort of rhymes)
4 is orange (four, or - get it?)
5 is red (I have no idea why)
6 is dark blue (ibid)
7 is purple (it's a funky number, it deserves a funky color)
8 is yellow (it's big and sunny)
9 is brown (cause that's what's left)

So when I think of an address, like 1245, it is a set of stripes: white, baby blue, orange and red.

Telephone numbers become plaids. The first three numbers are the columns, and the four numbers are the rows. It makes a picture in my mind that is easy to remember.

My phone number growing up was: 858-2022. It looks like this:

Only more like fabric in my mind.

1 comments:

W G Pollock said...

That is wild. It borders on synesthesia.

As a kid I often thought of phone numbers having a shape or path. Then later I could tell from the DTMF "touchtones" whether a familiar phone number "sounded" right or not - as I am sure many do. But colors?? That is far out Marcia.