Family, Fifty Words, Food, home, Music, pets, Songs, TV, Uncategorized

Remembrance of Things Past

30 Comments

Today’s post comes from Ben:

I came home and said hello to the dogs. Went out another door and said “Hi” to the dogs again, and then, as one does with dogs, said “Hi Hi Hi”

And then, from the depths of my mind, out of nowhere, sang  “Ayi Yi Yi Yi, I am the Frito Bandito”.
Wow.
I said to myself “Where did that come from??”
Forgotten anything lately? 
Remembered anything lately? 

30 thoughts on “Remembrance of Things Past”

  1. I can’t even remember all the things I’ve forgotten lately. I too have those moments where weird stuff like the Frito Bandito song pops into my head. Lots of old theme songs from 60s TV (that I remember ALL the words to).

    Or I’ll hear an interesting or unusual word which will trigger a rhyme or thoughts of other interesting or unusual words,

    It’s fun when someone is reminiscing about an event years ago, which sometimes triggers a recall of another event or moment that I hadn’t thought of since childhood. Memories are a curious thing. What must the “internal” filing systems of us old folks look like? 🙂 I see mine as a HUGE room full of overstuffed steel filing cabinets, with stacks of folders on top of the cabinets and on the floor. And every square inch of vertical space will be covered with yellow sticky-notes.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    Over the last week I have returned to work on a very limited basis. All the stuff I cannot remember is just blowing me away. It goes on and on.

    How to use the entry keypad?
    Where are my passwords?
    Why won’t those recordings appear on the cloud? Where did they go?
    How do I find that website?

    This morning I woke up to weird sensations in my knee that I suspect are nerves remembering to feel things again, since there is no evidence of anything wrong (no hot spots, no fever, no pain while walking—in fact it feels good to walk).

    So I feel kind of disoriented here—what are those nerves doing? I did not have brain surgery—where did that information go up there? I was not away that long?

    I will go talk to my dogs.

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    1. I suspect that what you’re experiencing, Jacque, are some side effects from both the anesthesia and the surgery itself. Not all that uncommon in older adults. Talking with your dogs about it may be a good strategy, but if it continues much longer, you may also want to chat with your doctor about it.

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      1. Will do. The nurse line there is really responsive and helpful and his nurse accesses the Dr. I just talked to them yesterday and I have PT later today. She also is very helpful.

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  3. I spent a couple of hours last night when I should have been sleeping, remembering everything I’m supposed to do in the next several weeks -it’s a little thick right now. I actually came to the conclusion I have to let go of something.

    We’ll see if WP lets me on here – it wasn’t recognizing that I exist, and I’ve changed my password, but who knows?

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  5. I am close to being obsessed with recalling the past. It’s sort of a hobby with me, an activity my old body can do and my new finances can support. And I really don’t understand the process of fishing up old memories, although I’m pretty good at it. One obvious truth: the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

    Chris sees old memories as something like a giant library card file. That’s pretty good. My problem is that many drawers in my card file have no handles, so I can’t access them. The data is stored there, but that does me no good.

    Last week someone asked for the name of a guy who was in my college dormitory, someone I last saw in 1964. I couldn’t remember it. I’ve lost my old college yearbook, so that memory aid is not available. Frustration! I remember that he came from Chicago and dreamed of being a writer. He was a good bluegrass banjo player. But his name . . . awww, shucks! That drawer had no handle.

    Then I was making a salad, cutting apart a cauliflower, when a message flashed in my head. Bob Cantwell! Bob Cantwell! The name of my old dorm buddy.

    Here’s what gets me: I wasn’t even thinking of Bob when his name suddenly popped up in neon colors in my brain. I had given up. But somewhere in the mess of old memories, a tiny part of my brain was still on the job, futzing around in the huge pile of forgotten names.

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    2. that happens so often; things I knew 5 minutes ago are gone. They’re right there on the tip of my tongue, but.
      So I go off and do something else and it will pop in shortly.

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    3. I’ve read that this sort of thing happens when we sleep – if you fall asleep with a question in mind (that you somewhere have the answer), it may be accessible by morning. And chores like you were doing where you mind is kind of free to roam seem to work, too, sometimes.

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  6. It’s a daily source of amazement to me how my brain works – or doesn’t. While watching Jeopardy!, for instance, I marvel at all of the obscure information that is tucked away inside my skull, and that I can usually readily recall. Of course, there’s lots more information that I don’t have a clue about.

    Like Ben and Chris, the occasional jingle or song will pop into my head from who knows where. Often when I consciously try to remember something, something else, often completely unrelated, will pop up as well.

    Memory fascinates me no end. Why do we remember what we do? Often small, seemingly insignificant, details remain embedded in our memories. When I was eight or nine years old, I attended my first wedding in Stubbekøbing, it made a big impression on me.

    Kaj and Elly were married in the old, local church, and the wedding dinner was held at Elly’s parents’ tiny house. Elly was the daughter of my parents’ best friends, Unkel Ejnar and Tante Ingeborg; Kaj was a sailor serving his military service in the Danish fleet – such as it is – at the time, he was not a local boy. He had gold front tooth which I found totally irresistible and very sexy. Apparently Elly did too; it would later become evident that she was pregnant at the time of the wedding. As was the custom, several songs had been written for the occasion. To this day I can recall, the entire, long first verse of one of these songs, this despite the fact that it was sung only once during the dinner. It was a song set to an popular, old, sentimental Danish tune that everyone was familiar with. I suppose it was a combination of the familiar tune, my excitement at being at this lovely wedding, and seeing the bride and groom steel a furtive kiss when they thought no one was looking that somehow made that verse stick in my head for now almost seventy years.

    Here’s the original song, sung by a Danish opera singer who once taught at Macalester Collge:

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    1. I chose it. I was thinking of Flanders Fields and poppies for WWI.

      My conference is at its most boring right now, as it is the business portion of the meeting.

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        1. I can’t think of Flanders Fields without thinking of Eric Bogle and his song “No Man’s Land,” to my mind one of the finest anti-war songs ever. Posted below is the first of a two-part video, of Bogle, during a visit to one of the cemeteries in the area, talking about his thoughts, feelings, and intentions when writing the song. The video is fifteen minutes long, well worth watching when you have the time.

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  8. I want to know have you ever seen the rain
    I want to know have you ever seen the rain
    Coming down on a sunny day

    Saving nickles saving dimes
    Waiting til the sun don’t shine
    Gonna be some happy time
    On blue bayou

    The linda ronstead movie is a good one if you get a chance to hit the artsy theaters before it’s gone

    I am not a ccr fan at all but I had a guy play that song at a guitar session almost two years ago and I love the ear worm

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  10. There is a Calvin & Hobbes Sunday comic that shows all the little “Calvin’s” in his brain reacting to a mis-step as he’s headed down the stairs. Wish I could find it…

    WP won’t let me “Like” anything, and I still have to sign in with a password for every comment. See you tomorrow, unless something gets easier.

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