Y’all know that I have hardly any memory, like an old, cheap computer. I’ve never had a good memory, and menopause sure hasn’t given it a boost. But then it surprises me.
Remember I told you about the time I recognized one of my nephews in the store, seeing him from the back, from the knees down? So just a pair of calves, standing in line, from several aisles away. I said to The EGE, whose brother’s child this is, “That’s Trey.” And he goes, “?”
I was right. I’ve also a;ways been able to identify handwriting of people, meaning there’s some memory for something—just not the usual stuff. I can’t remember faces at all. Or names—that’s the worst. Or much of anything that happened to me as a child. Or really much before I woke up this morning.
So the other night we’re watching an episode of Numb3rs, and a guy walks into the room, and speaks a line, and I go, “That’s that guy! You know, that guy!” I have to stop the DVD and go back and check the guest stars, and sure enough: it’s Will Patton.
Now, we’ve never seen Will Patton, because we don’t know him as an actor; we know him as the voice of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series on CD. We’ve never seen him, but we’ve heard him do a hundred different voices. He spoke one line, and something clicked.
Isn’t that funny? Memory is endlessly fascinating to me. If you have a quirky memory, one that seems to work in its very own idiosyncratic way, tell me about it—I’d love to hear.
Then I don’t feel so alone and memory-impaired.
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2 days ago
15 comments:
I've never been good at remembering names. I figured I inherited it. My mom used to call my sister and me by the dog's names. :) I'm good at remembering faces. I just can't always place where I remember the face or what name goes with it. Voices too. I was listening to an audio book the other day, and thought to myself "It's the voice!". I finally had to check to see that it was Peter Coyote, who apparently is an actor too.
I was about to leave a comment, but have forgotten what I was going to say. Oh well. :)
OMG! I know that guy's voice, too! I just listened to something else he read...of course, I can't remember the name of the book, but it sure was good!
ho, ho: y'all made me laugh.
I'm terrible with names and faces when I first meet people. I'm bad with dates and appointments, too.. sometimes I think there's just too much going on in my head at any one point to keep track of it all.
My friends or family will ask me if I remember such-and-such thing that happened a long time ago, and I usually don't, but I remember the oddest trivial little things that no one else does.
And I can never seem to remember where I put the keys I had two minutes ago. Half the time they're still in my pocket. :P
The Dave Robicheaux series on CD? I think I've read every book in the series and don't know if I could stand a voice that wasn't the voice I have in my head for Dave. And what about Clete? Clete Purcell has a certain voice to me.
I sure like the books tho.
Darla
My thing with memory is that it's quite indiscriminate in what it decides is important and should file away.
I can tell you that one morning five years ago, my friend Tricia (whom you've interviewed, though I don't know if you remember!) went for a walk around a pond during one of our early morning email "chats." I can even recall the details of the email upon her return home.
I can recall the name of the actresses from "V: The Miniseries" from back in the '80's (when I was 10, possibly younger)...Jane Badler...and June Chadwick...and Mark Harmon.
I can remember that the woman at the comic book store I went to when I was about 7 or 8 wore cut off jeans for shorts, and that she had very curly bonde hair and wore biker t-shirts.
But can I recall last week? Nope. How about the directions Bird gave me while driving today, even five minutes later? Big ol' nope. (and no, despite what they say about short term memory, I'm not a pot smoker)
Can I remember the year that Charlie and I became a couple? Not without consulting with various friends who happened to be there when it occurred.
Can't recommend the recent film, however. "Electric Mists....." is one of my favorite Robicheaux books, but they made a hash of the movie.
My memory seems to be on a 20 minute delay. If I can't remember a name reference, I can just about guarantee I'll remember it in almost exactly 20 minutes...every time. Just pops into my brain. Can anyone explain that?
Good to know I'm not the only one who has a horrible memory for real life, but can remember so much useless trivia. Actors and celebrities, weird historical stuff - I rock at Trivial Pursuit and crossword puzzles. I can remember names and faces too, but what actually happened, what someone said, I'm not a good enough liar to fake it. It's very frustrating!
i'm doing this strange thing that's uncomfortable but i'm getting used to it. when talking and am coming up to something i know i'm gonna have trouble remembering, which i'm trying to remember before i forget, i then come up with what it means and that's what i end up saying...
she had the most wonderful outfit. purple with black flowers. i really liked that... that thing you wear to cover your head.
namaste
Will Patton! OMG, I just finished listening to him reading Kerouac's On The Road. What a coincidence -- I had never heard of him before this past week. Cool. Love your videos, and thanks for all your great work all these years. I feel like I'm seeing an old friend each time I come across one of your articles or books!
I may have Alzheimer's but at least I don't have Alzheimer's
Cool stories.
In my teens and early twenties, I would get through math and physics tests by visualizing the page of the textbook certain formulae or derivations were on.
Fortunately, I had a baby a few years ago. This lowered my IQ by about forty points, so there's no more of that nasty physics stuff for me! I am now only able to converse about poo-poo and pee-pee.
oh, WM, i used to do that, too. in a grad school psych course, where i was determined, for some perverse reason, to have the highest GPA (even though i was an undergrad at the time), i would shut my eyes and see the pages and "read" the answers.
thank god for menopause. now i don't have to be smart any more. i can just try to be funny. much more fun, by a long shot.
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