It all works this way (though a certain female family member would disagree, claiming to remember conversations word-for-word years later).
But my memory works this way. A summary "party at so-and-so's house, weather was nice, overall vibe was ___". The rest is context. You know what the house/backyard is like, you know the general feel of that time of year, you know the crowd that usually comes, you can easily synthesize details like the smell of the BBQ and the taste of the food... build up a complete "memory" from stuff that could be summarized in a paragraph of text plus generic (not specific to one memory episode) context.
I can build up a relatively vivid mental image of my walking route to school (from the bus terminal) over 40 years ago. Is it accurate? Who cares. As long as no detailed record exists to compare it to that would reveal the "lossy compression".
But my memory works this way. A summary "party at so-and-so's house, weather was nice, overall vibe was ___". The rest is context. You know what the house/backyard is like, you know the general feel of that time of year, you know the crowd that usually comes, you can easily synthesize details like the smell of the BBQ and the taste of the food... build up a complete "memory" from stuff that could be summarized in a paragraph of text plus generic (not specific to one memory episode) context.
I can build up a relatively vivid mental image of my walking route to school (from the bus terminal) over 40 years ago. Is it accurate? Who cares. As long as no detailed record exists to compare it to that would reveal the "lossy compression".