He Never Forgets: Meet the Super-Memory Man

Memory: 'It's Like a Hard Drive'

The remembering also is completely unintentional.

Petrella remembers schoolboy sports events in Pennsylvania and that he got glasses in 1956. He remembers all but two of his birthdays since he turned 5. He recalls where he was and what he did with high school buddies. Grainy images of the 1970s are vivid pictures in his head. "I remember all my ATM codes," he said. "I remember people's numbers. [I] lost my cell phone Sept. 24, 2006. A lot of people, if they lost their cell phone, they would panic because they have all these numbers. I didn't have any numbers in my cell phone because I know everybody's numbers up here [in my head]."

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"It's like a hard drive," he said. "You want to throw some of these dates in the trash and put more, maybe some creative things on -- because they are some inane things, a lot of things. Sometimes that's a bad thing, because when I am going through ... a bad situation or a bad circumstance. And then I go back and I go, 'boy, this is how I felt on, say, May 3, 1986."

At the same time, Petrella has the kind of forgetfulness anyone can have. He'll walk into another room and forget why he entered. Or he'll forget that he left his car in a tow zone.

Petrella is most astounding at sports events. If shown a freeze frame from a game 35 years ago, he'll recall details of the sporting event.

And he knows just about everything when it comes to his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Oh, that was my most memorable Super Bowl," he said when asked about the Steelers' third Super Bowl win. "Jan. 21, 1979, 35-31, over Dallas. Terry Bradshaw was the most valuable player. Threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns."