How do you remember things?

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I remember most clearly a detail of an event. It might be one sentence someone said. It might be where people were sitting. Yet to figure out what I am remembering (sometimes I have no idea what event I am remembering.) I have to work backwards.

For example if I remember where someone is sitting, I picture the table. I picture who else was there and try to go from there.

Or I might remember one thing we did. Years ago I got to visit some family members. My mom was visiting with me. She told me so many things we did that I wish I could remember. But all I can remember is a word used as we played Scrabble and what one of the others said when I commented that I almost had the word Tegretol (medicine but not sure how to spell it). Or I remember one thing another person said. But my mom remembers the major things we did together. Things I wish I could remember and picture in my mind. Yet I can't.

I am the same in that I tend to remember one specific thing and nothing else and if I have to remember something other than that, I have to really work backwards to it. I've moved a ton during my life so I picture what house I was living in at the time, what school I was attending, what time of the year it was, etc. I can usually pull it out but it takes work.
I'm also this way with reading books. I love reading and I'm totally engrossed while I'm doing it, but I tend to walk away with only a vivid memory of one or two things that I found the most interesting with little memory of the rest of the details. When I read books for school, I have write down summaries of everything that happens as I'm reading so that I can use it to jog my memory later when questions are asked about it. Everyone else seems to be able to call minute details that I can't remember at all.

I remember scenes almost as if I'm there, but from a third person perspective somehow, like looking at my own memory from a foot to the left or something like that. I tend to remember details that have a clear pattern, like where people were sitting and specific things they said if it caught my interest. I hardly ever remember what anyone was wearing, or I remember, but the colors are all wrong if I ask someone else, like I'll say "she was wearing purple" but it was blue or red. I remember print really well and can memorize poems or long rythmic performances like spoken word or skits quickly and repeat them verbatim. I often forget the color of people's eyes and hair easily though, which bugs me sometimes, I think I ought to remember that.
Sometimes I'm so caught up in one thought or daydream that I don't remember anything else from that event/activity but the thing I was focused on, or a single person I spoke to. My memory is decent for recent months or years overall. Old memories get mixed up chronologically and blend together though, so that some things I think I remember are made up of several similar events months or years apart.

I have a decent memory of what I've touched (haptic memory) or precise visual information. As far as details, I recently remember how an unusual leaf felt soft with wavy texure, how a butterfly looks very furry with dozens of hairs and rough edges of a book. These things easily come to my mind.