Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
No doubt you’ve heard the old joke that memory is the first thing to go, and I don’t remember the second thing.
There’s much truth in that saying. I know that because my wife and I have reached the age when memory comes and goes, and when it goes, it stays out late, like the town drunk.
We can watch a movie on TV and then realize, halfway in, that we’d seen it before.
“I remember that guy saying that,” I’ll tell my wife. “We have seen this movie before. I know we have.”
“Well, let’s watch the rest of it,” she’ll say, “because I don’t remember what happened.”
“I don’t either,” I’ll say.
It’s worse with names. Sometimes I can remember someone’s first name, and she can remember the last name. Often we can’t remember either one.
“His name starts with a T,” I’ll say. “It’s a short name, like Tom or Tim, but that’s not it.”
“Seems like his last name starts with a J,” she’ll say. “Jones, James, Jordan. No, none of those.”
Then, about 2 in the morning, on a trip to the bathroom, the name magically shows up in a memory bank. Sometimes it’s her bank, sometimes it’s mine.
Keys, cellphones and glasses are the next things we forget. We forget where we left them.
Dr. Arash Salardini, co-director of Yale’s Memory Disorder Clinic, calls it “episodic memory,” referring to memories with specific context in space and time. “Based on that,” he says, “you can see what sort of memories usually go first. People misplace things. They forget appointments.”
My wife and I seldom forget appointments. Well, we do, but we both have calendars. Calendars can be wrong, however, when someone notes the appointment on the wrong date.
I did that for a speech before the Rotary Club in Royston, Ga., several years ago. Unfortunately, no one in the club saw the humor in my forgetting. I know because I tried to make a joke of it when I finally did speak, and no one cracked a smile.
Several decades ago, my newspaper colleagues and I attended a memory clinic taught by a guy named William V. Nutt. Who could forget that name? And I didn’t forget his explaining “associative memory” for remembering items.
Let’s say you memorize several words for association: one run, two zoo, three tree, four door, five hive, six sticks, seven heaven, eight gate—and so on. Then you picture an image, associating the word, or words, you want to remember with one of the memorized words. The more ridiculous your image, the better.
So, for number one, you might picture a can of Campbell’s tomato soup running through the traffic, a can opener in his tinny, left hand. And then you remember to pick up some canned soup at the grocery store.
Unfortunately, the method doesn’t work with names. Or keys. Or glasses. Or appointments.
There are certain things, though, that’ll I’ll forget only one time—and never again.
My wife’s birthday comes to mind.
