Your Memory

[Graham Ritchie]

How good is your memory?, well a strange thing happened a couple of years ago. I had to take the car into a tyre company, that for years I always go to and while there and the mechanic was working on it, I noticed one of the owners, now retired at the back working on his sons racing mini. I asked would it be ok to go and have a look, sure, When I got to the car I started speaking to the owner while he was working on it, he was telling me that they lost the clutch at the last race meeting. Now this is where it got strange I talked about a particular "C" shaped thrust washer, he replied yes, when he worked on the engine the last time it must have fallen out. I replied that locking "C" ring has to be fitted with the crankshaft at TDC when you fit the flywheel, once the flywheel is on then it cannot fall out. We continued to have a good chat about the engine and I left thanking him.

But after I left, I started thinking how can I remember that about the thrust washer , its been something like 50 years ago since I last worked on a mini engine. Now I will be 73 in a couple of days, what I now find is my short memory like what I did yesterday is slipping, but long term memory seems to be increasing I think that it happens to most of us as our brains age

But I also wonder if its my almost daily visit to Muffin Break for a coffee helps the old brain cells as well or is that just a coincidence?

[Ed Gordon]

“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.”

― Mark Twain

My short term memory has never been great. I can forget the name of someone I was introduced to 30 minutes ago, and yet recall the full name of someone I went to high school with years ago.

Have you ever seen a trailer for a film, and go out and rent it, only to remember you saw that movie years ago?

Did you lose the keys to your car and can't find them were you usually put them? No problem.

Did you find a set of keys, and have no idea what the keys are for? You have a problem.

[Alan Paterson]

I always think that a brain is like a filing cabinet with only a finite amount of storage space. It hangs on to things it deems important but bins stuff it thinks it may never need again. It also depends on how often you access certain memories. If you don't think about certain things regularly, they go hazy in memory. Yet if you get a reminder, say in the form of a picture, then it freshens up that memory for a while. The trick is not to worry. Leave that to others and enjoy life. I say this at the tender age of 66, just about to receive my state pension for the first time. :-)

[Graham Ritchie]

Well this is not a joke, it really happened, way back in the 1970-80s I worked with someone who told me he got a book out the library in how to improve your memory, he did read it. I asked how was it?, good he replied. The only thing, and I am not kidding here, was after that reply, he added that he forgot to take the book back.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

When you are married, then you don’t have to remember your mistakes anymore as your wife will do this for you. This frees up a lot of capacity in a man‘s brain.

[Ken Finch]

I suffer from a kind of short term memory loss in respect of peoples names and place names. Half an hour later I will remember them! Very embarrassing at times. Peculiarly, I have vivid memories of events of my childhood especially wartime in London, and cinema going. An example of the latter being taken by my father at the age of 4 to the Woolwich Odeon to see Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Had a front row balcony seat and was more scared of falling over the balcony than I was of the wicked witch! The older you get, the worse it becomes. All sorts of bits of me don’t work as well as they used to.

[Dave Groves]

The older you get the worse things become. Just before ChristmasI bought new pyjamas from Marks and Spencer (a british store) The sizing was rather odd. The jacket went round me twice and the legs were too short. Next day we caught. the tram into Nottingham and I tucked them in between us. We got off the tram and the doors closed leaving my bag on the seat. I rang the bell but it was too late. We found out where the tram office was and reported the loss. This was now almost an hour later. We retraced our steps and crossed to the shelter when a young lady approached. 'Did you leave an M&S bag on the tram' she asked. 'Yes'. 'I looked for you but couldn't see you so I took it back to Marks and Spencer'!! The shop couldn't find it but it was located two days later. I have a saying: It either works, half works], doesn't work at all or it's dropped off'. There are still some honest people in the world.

[Steve Klare]

I wanted to answer this thread, but I keep forgetting!

I'm sure my memory isn't what it used to be (-along with my handwriting, but that's another story! Some days even I can't read it!), but what keeps me propped-up as a human being is Microsoft Calender! ANY appointment I make goes in there, with a reminder in advance! (WHAT? -that's TOMORROW?!!)

My wife says my memory (-and my hearing..) has become "selective". As a pair, we have his competition to see who has the most distorted view of past events. Sometimes she'll "remember" something that happened about a decade ago. Unless it makes some substantial difference (money spent, people offended), I'll bite my lip and just say "no...." deep inside!

Maybe my memory wasn't ever quite perfect. There I was, about 26 years old, and I'm out with this girl I've been dating about 6 weeks. We went to a party: chiefly my friends, and I went to introduce her. I tried to access her personnel file in my brain, and all I got back was this internal fault error: "Holy Crap! I've forgotten her NAME!"

All I could do was smile shyly while she introduced herself! ("'ALICE!'...RIGHT! -her name is 'ALICE!'")

...YEAH! NOW I remember!

I find in the car I drive according to established routes. If I'm headed someplace one exit after or heaven-forbid before where I work, I have to fight the urge to take the work exit.

I'm going to transplant a sound-head into one of my machines tomorrow...there will be lots of pictures and notes...and a pill case for the hardware (-another "benefit" of...maturity!). The days when I could fish the right screw out of a pretty full spare coffee cup are fading!

[Graham Ritchie]

Steve

I remember when Mt Cook airlines closed the engineering, and I went to work for Ansett, there was another X Mount Cook employee like myself who got employment with them. Anyway he was always being late for work. I told the Ansett guys when they asked where is Rodney?, I would reply I bet I know where he was going , yes, he driving past us to our old hanger, old habits die hard. It took him a while to stop doing that

[Osi Osgood]

The worst part is forgetting names, as people think you don't care about them, if you can't remember they're names! My advice to them is to be a complete a**hole to me, and you are guaranteed that I will remember your name! 😆