What is the wiring in our brains such that we remember things – people, places, events, sensations, emotions, etc.? What is the cause of memory loss? Why do memories vary as between people. Why do memories become distorted? Why do memories vary so much as between people? Why do our memories vary over time? Etc. It is a BIG subject.

What is photographic memory? How does one classify it? Exact recall of a printed page?.

I have a case study very close to hand. My husband’s memory is fading. At what point did this become noticeable? It’s hard to pinpoint – everyone’s memory is a changing phenomenon. But I would say it became a factor approximately 5 years ago. I remember myself saying “your memory is shot”. And it has become a moving phenomenon.

In his early 80’s it was within “normal” bounds. Now at age 87 he can still remember the names of our 9 grandchildren and link who belongs to whom. But he can’t remember anything about our house and its location. He can’t understand where or why we are living in an assisted living facility. (We moved 10 months ago.) He can’t remember where our sons and their families live. He is very disoriented, both as to time and place.

And yet in the immediate present he is very sharp. And we have a lot of fun and laughter with plays on words. He is known here in the community of assisted living residents as a witty gentleman with a keen sense of humor! Amen to that.

Back in the 1980’s my husband and I lived in Thimphu Bhutan. Fascinating as it was there were certain challenges. One challenge was how to get a chicken, sort of a staple for our Western palates. So at dinner tonight here in Seattle we were served chicken. To make conversation I aSked my husband if he remembered driving to Simgatoka about 7 miles from Thimphu to buy a chicken for our evening meal. This was a fairly regular occurrence which I tended to avoid. My husband drove and I was in the passenger seat with a 3000 foot drop to my right. It always felt as if he were far too near that precipitous drop. Of course it never happened since we are still here to tell the tale. He couldn’t remember the name of that chicken farm, but I sort of did and a Google search confirmed my guess. Fun times.

I went to Middlebury College in Vermont the 1950’s. As you probably know, this was “Frost” country. He had a cottage in nearby Ripon Vermont near the Broadloaf Summer School campus of the College – on the road to the Snowball. As an avid skier I passed his hoe many times.

One of my many stirring memories of my college years was to attend a reading of his poems by Robert Frost himself. This was in 1957?. The reading was held in the living room in Willard, one of the women’s dorms. We girls sat on the floor and Robert Frost sat in a rocking chair and read a selection of his poems. It was just Just 2 or 3 years later he read his poem specially composed for the John F Kennedy inauguration.