Losing Factors

I have a reputation with my high school classmates who think I have a fantastic memory.

As a matter of fact, usually whenever the "girls" from our class and I get together for our once-a-month-lunch, it is a rare occasion that something from the distant past doesn't come up in conversation and I remember events or even sometimes all kinds of details too about stuff that they, my friends, have pretty much forgotten about.

And they ask me "How do you remember all this stuff?"

To be honest, I have no clue about this remembering thing because my kids will tell you just the opposite about me, that I can'r remember beyond five minutes some times, or at most, maybe 24 hours!

It is a bit of a strange phenomenon for sure that I can remember stuff from forty to almost sixty years ago, and often clear as a bell too, but more recent stuff, not so much.

It's sure not as if I have notebook memory or anything like that, ya know.

But this past Sunday after church, even my long-term memory screwed up on me.

There was a name listed on the prayer chain in our church bulletin and I recognized it immediately but then, had a question in my mind as to whether the person named was the one I knew or if maybe it was a son of his or something like that. Now, our neighbor up the street, who I knew was a close relative of his was there, so after church I waltzed up to her, figuring to ask and make sure that I knew who this party on the prayer chain really is.

And so I asked her, "Is that person your uncle or your nephew?" She gave me this really confused, quizzical look as she answered, "No, it's my brother."

And then it dawned on me, yes, her brother -who I have known since his birth, since his parents brought him home from the hospital about 55 years ago now!

What happened there wasn't really that I forgot but rather that I had the question floating in my mind and when I posed it to her, my tongue just got a bit discombobulated.

Well, that's my story, my logic, and it's the excuse I'm sticking to at any rate!