RECALL
Some people I know seem to have the uncanny ability to remember dates of importance and some of little consequence whatever. It makes no matter if it happened last week or a decade or more ago. They
have it ready and waiting right there on the tip of their notebook mind.
I often feel silly when they do this in my presence. I have had trouble spelling my own second name, so memory is not among my fortes if I have any.
Other do ,too. They feel touchy when others remember what they cannot, I find.
I was talking with a couple the other evening (I have forgotten what night it was) and the husband said they had run into a friend of theirs a day or so ago who greeted them with the question: “Well, I guess, you
two are getting all excited this week, right?” He seemed to know what they should be celebrating. He must have seen a blank look on their faces because he offered an explanation at once.”Your twenty-seventh wedding
anniversary is coming up Saturday!” He then listed several other events which took place at about the same time, as if to prove his declaration. He finished with “Y’know, Mac, you don’t look fifty-one years old at all!” and cited the
exact date of birth. The couple said they were tempted to ask what time of day or night the natal event took place
but refrained from doing so b ecause they though he might have an answer.
There are others, too, who are more useful and less aggressive with their specific knowledge. I knew one young man who worked as a clerk in a store where everyone had a membership card which allowed us to
shop there. Every account -thousands of them - had a six-digit membership number. If such a number was mentioned it was “recorded” it in some magical manner. You never had to remember it, or look it up, ever again. He didn’t
even ask for your number. He knew thousands of such numbers and used them as needed. He would have been a real gem if he had worked in the parts department of a large industrial plant.
Have you ever encountered such a date-doter as that?
The ability does seem to run in families, however loosely.
My father- in-law, Marcus Arndt, could always come up with important family dates - birthdays, anniversaries,and special events within the family. He maintained a neat little, black notebook, however, in which
such information was detailed. His recall of items written in that small book was truly remarkable! Our grandson, Chris Shirkey is a walking telephone book. That tendency was aided and abetted by our readiness to “ask Chris” instead
of consulting our tri-city phone books for numbers we needed.
More power to ‘em, - all these people who remember things so well. May they stay close to me. But, as for the reasons I had in mind urging them to do so....I forget.
A.L..M. September 17, 2002 [c509wds]
