The attorney next to me was having a conversation with his assistant. I listened.
The attorney said, “That man has discussed the same matter with me at least six times.” The assistant replied, not looking up from her computer, “Is the man here or was he on the phone?”
The attorney said, “Who?” The assistant said, “The man you were just talking about!”
The assistant rolled her eyes while I laughed. I told her, “Sam and I have conversations like that all the time.”
It seems these days that our memory … well it ain’t what it used to be. But that’s not so disturbing because just about everybody we know suffers from the same condition. I like to think that after all these years of putting information in, some of it entirely useless, something has to fall out, like maybe the guy you dated in high school or your brother-in-law’s first name.
When I was a preschooler my momma taught me a memory game, and I’m thinking about starting it up again. She’d put a dozen or so objects on a tray; then while I closed my eyes, she’d remove one. I’d have to name the missing object. We’d take turns. More and more I see how wise my momma was.
It’s said things you learn when you are young will not depart from you when you are old. It’s a comforting thought and one I’ve found to be pretty much true.
Things I want to learn now I write on a chalkboard made from an old window frame that I bought at the Prairie Arts Festival. On the side of the frame there’s a silver fork with the tines rolled over to hold the chalk. I write the expression there and look at it every morning, repeating it until I’m ready to move on to something else.
Things I memorize now don’t stick as long as they did when I was a child. From childhood I can still recite the 23rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, and a couple of lines from poems, nursery rhymes, stories or favorite movies and songs. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star … ” comes to mind and “Jack be nimble … ”
Then there are two rhymes Momma taught me, and I can remember every word. They still make me laugh:
“I wish I were a little rock a sitting on a hill, a doing nothing all day long but just a sitting still. I wouldn’t eat, I wouldn’t sleep; I wouldn’t even wash. I’d sit there a thousand years and rest myself by gosh.”
Though Momma may have created her own version, this is by far my favorite:
“Way down yonder in yanky tank. Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank. And the blue baboon by the light of the moon was combing his auburn hair. The monkey, he got drunk and sat on the elephant’s trunk. The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees and what became of the mon-key de monk-key de monk?”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.