Carrie Link

UNFORGETTABLE

That old Nat King Cole song has been running through my head the past few days. One might even say it is driving me crazy, if not for the fact that it is August 21st, and I have been home with bored, unmedicated children for WEEKS, so am, thusly, already crazy. It's led me to wonder, why are some things so darn hard to remember, and some stick in our craw forever?

I am so forgetful, if I don't write it down, it's forgotten, instantly. Case in point, one would not think it necessary to write oneself a note as to why one is opening the pantry. Alas, one would be wrong. From the time one has thought of what one needs, to the time one stares blankly at the shelves of the pantry, one has forgotten why one first went to the pantry, entirely. One might even repeat said process two or three times before "scoring", and completing the whole retrieval process.

Thus being said, I can tell you all about the girl in my first grade class, Pia Porche Paisley, who preferred that we all address her as Anna Feather. I can tell you about the third grade girl who bragged, daily, that her parents didn't care if she swore. In fact, this girl could shout, at the top of her lungs, "G.. D... F.....H...S...B....A.." and they wouldn't do a thing about it. Not a damn thing.

I can tell you how to make bloody Mary mix, if you don't have the mixer. I learned this skill at age six. I have never once made it, but I know the recipe by heart.

I can tell the names of every teacher I've ever had, what they looked like, what they wore, and something significant that they taught me. I cannot speak ten words of French, and I took the subject for more than two years.

When it comes to those who have "wronged" me, I've got a mind like a steel trap. I could win awards on my recall ability. Why are those painful experiences so locked in, and so difficult to exorcise?

My friend told me a story a long, long time ago, and I've never forgotten it. Her grandparents had a fiesty marriage, a nasty divorce and everyone thought "their" story was over. Everyone was wrong. Years after they divorced, the ex-husband had an accident, was in a coma, and when he woke up he was amnesiac. His ex-wife had been coming to the hospital to visit him. When he woke up and saw his ex-wife, he had forgotten they were divorced! She went along with it, and as the story goes, they started all over, with his clean memory and her clean slate, and stayed together happily ever after.

I'm thinking I could use a well-placed brick to the head. There are definitely some memories that could use erasing, and some new experiences coming in that might be nice to remember.

The point is, oh darn, where was I going with this, I forgot.