I
believe it was Yogi who is credited with the remark about something being “déjà
vu all over again” so here it is, again.
I write this stuff, usually in one sitting, and everything I say (write)
is truthful and accurate, as I remember it (my disclaimer). I pride myself with having a good
memory. I believe the brain is somewhat
like the hard drive on a computer that stores a huge amount of memory. The key is knowing how to access that
memory. In my case, I think it has been
helpful to work crossword puzzles and other type of mental games that exercise
my brain. But I have been told that
sometimes the brain can play “tricks” on a person without them realizing it. Which brings me to the topic of this issue. I’ll just call it “memory.” For example:
We had a chance to visit the great-grandkids a few days ago. Apparently Molly is in the middle of her
“terrible threes” and pitches a fit now and then, sometime holding her
breath. All at once my memory kicked in
and I remembered the times that Molly’s granddad, Steve, also held his breath
when he got overly irritated. On one
memorable occasion, he had a loud tantrum and ran into the bedroom. Anita went to get him and found him
unconscious on the floor so she screamed and picked him up we headed for the ER
but by the time we got to the car he was awake and breathing normally. I also remembered the time when I was two or
three years old and also guilty of breath-holding. My mom splashed some water in my face and
that must have startled me and caused me to take a deep breath. I think that cured me from holding my breath
again. Ah, memories. A recent memory I have had and have mentioned
a couple of times is the location of the first house that my friend and fellow
OFC member, Shelby, resided when his family moved to Calico Rock. He strongly denies ever living there,
insisting that his family lived in a house across the street and the house I am
referring to was occupied by another friend, Earl Ray, and his mom and dad. Shelby has also come up with a person
(Harold, another OFC member) to confirm his side of the story. This is very troubling. Could I actually be mistaken?
I
decided to go to the senior center in a neighboring town for some professional
memory testing. I was informed that the
testing would take about thirty minutes.
Before the testing began, the attractive, young technician told me she
was going to give me five words to try to remember and that she would ask me
for the words some time during the procedure.
The five words were “apple, tie, pen, car and house.” This is easy, I thought. I simply applied “Reed’s method of word association”
to the words: Apple (fruit), Tie (neck),
etc. You get the idea. After about fifteen minutes, she asked for
the five words. When I answered “apple,
tie, pen, car, house” I thought she was
going to faint. “You’ve got a mind like
a steel trap” she said. After making a
perfect score on the testing, I promised her that I would return at a later
date for a more extensive examination.
Steel trap, eh! What a
relief. But what about the house in
Calico Rock where Shelby first lived? I
decided to google my brain to find the answer and there it was where it had
been all the time. My brain was playing
tricks on me. You see, I first met
Shelby (along with his brothers Jimmy and Gordon) one day when I visited my
friend, Earl Ray. He said that the boys
and their parents had recently moved into a house across the street but that
the boys were at his house quite often.
My brain had them “living” in the Earl Ray house but “residing” in the
other house. Thank you, brain. I believe Shelby will buy this
explanation. Makes sense to me and my
memory is still intact. Steel Trap. For a while there I thought I was wrong, but
I was wrong. Do I need to repeat
that? What did you say? Oh, the five words. Let’s see now (fruit) Banana, (neck)
collar,------
