Yes, I understand this is part of getting older. I have an excellent memory and do not expect to remember every day of my life, but it seems more and more old memories are just not there or have blurred into something generalized.

Do you feel you have forgotten a lot of your life? I guess everyone does.

Losing memories of loves ones passed on is probably the worst of it for me. Leaves you wondering just how much more will be forgotten as time passes.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Yes, I understand this is part of getting older. I have an excellent memory and do not expect to remember every day of my life, but it seems more and more old memories are just not there or have blurred into something generalized.

Do you feel you have forgotten a lot of your life? I guess everyone does.

Losing memories of loves ones passed on is probably the worst of it for me. Leaves you wondering just how much more will be forgotten as time passes.

I dont have this issue but I am fairly young. If it is important to you I would definately start documenting things so you can look back on it later, or your family can understand and share those people/stories that were important to you.

Old memories, new memories, it's thesedays losing any memories.

The past isn't all it is cracked up to be.

I have experienced that, very upsetting. I often can’t recall the names of very good clients, or when things happened.

Worse, I have a vivid recollection of an event, but sometimes the event did not happen. I was embarrassed a few years ago to relate in some detail an event in high school that many should have witnessed and recalled. One of them who would have been a participant told me, privately, “nothing like that happened.”

Mark Twain was lucky to be able to remember everything that ever happened to him and a lot more besides. I an better at the latter, not so much with the former.

Not exactly memories, but when it came time to settle and dissolve our parents estate we started noticing littles numbers stuck on almost everything in the house. Then, we found "Nannies Book of Stuff". In the book were hand written detailed descriptions linked to the numbers giving the origin etc and sometimes price for each item. Things like "this was my great grandmothers lamp, her Father gave it to her as a wedding present" or "found this table at a yard sale in 1967".

It was amazing, informative, sometimes funny and extremely helpful for us dividing the property among the four of us. Some entries had a simple brief line and some had a full page. A few verified an object went to a particular child, as had been promised or asked for. She had started it some 20 years earlier, maybe she saw the writing on the wall. She developed dementia in her last years and could not even remember our names.

Link to original video: https://youtu.be/VIC1gN6ehm8

It's so hard to find 35mm film anymore. Oh, well.

As to photos, I have a massive collection of digital photos for the past 15 years or so, many of which are divided into folders for particular events or periods of time like "Summer 2008". It's a bit scary that many events that recent have been completely forgotten about. Fortunately most are recalled once I look at the pics. Every once in a while I do find a folder of a minor event and barely recall it.

I remember and still feel the love of someone very special to me almost 50 years ago. Her voice and characterism are fairly strong memories. But her image is very faded. I miss her so. Things would probably be very different today had she not died.
I weep now.

quote:

Not exactly memories, but when it came time to settle and dissolve our parents estate we started noticing littles numbers stuck on almost everything in the house. Then, we found "Nannies Book of Stuff". In the book were hand written detailed descriptions linked to the numbers giving the origin etc and sometimes price for each item. Things like "this was my great grandmothers lamp, her Father gave it to her as a wedding present" or "found this table at a yard sale in 1967".

It was amazing, informative, sometimes funny and extremely helpful for us dividing the property among the four of us. Some entries had a simple brief line and some had a full page. A few verified an object went to a particular child, as had been promised or asked for. She had started it some 20 years earlier, maybe she saw the writing on the wall. She developed dementia in her last years and could not even remember our names.

This is a fantastic idea! I will talk to my wife about it.
The kids are not going to collect our stuff before we are gone--we'll be lucky if they collect their own stuff!

Also: we have a trust and a pour-over will, but we have not itemized enough of our property to make sure it is in the trust, and to get an idea of the total value. If the kids want to divide stuff up, it would be helpful for them to know the approximate value.

I realized long ago that the things people remember vary widely. I, for example, have very poor memories of events in my life and that extends to recalling names and especially faces. I can remember only a few names even of people who were very important to me at one time. I’ve always been that way, and it extends to both short as well as long term memories. But I do have very clear and detailed memories of certain things such as historical facts, mathematical formulas, legal statutes, etc., i.e., stuff that I learned long ago for specific reasons.

On the other hand, someone whom I’ve traveled with extensively has an excellent memory for places and events. In referring back to a trip we took some years previously, she said, “Oh yes, that was the day we went to Baltimore and stopped at McDonald’s on the way there.” I often think that she enjoys traveling much more than I because of her much better memory of what we did and saw. My brothers will refer to a house where we lived years ago by the color of the carpet, but I have virtually no recollection of anything about the residence.

Funny that you brought this up. A first cousin that I was very close to growing up is dying of cancer. Quite a few months ago I started calling him and we talk at least monthly now.

Just this week we talked briefly about his short-lived career as a stock car driver. There was a class of cars that raced at the fairgounds in the rural Nebraska county where he lived. About all you could do to the cars was gut the interior, install a roll bar and shoulder harness, and cut the exhaust system so that the car dumped exhaust behind the front wheels.

Mark (my cousin) was talking about the arthritis in his neck and blamed it on dirt bikes. I reminded him of the time he rolled that stock car over—two or three times. He remembered that I was the first to reach the car and that it was strange because I had to out out around the engine block which came out of the car. I remembered that the car was a Plymouth—not bad considering I had nothing to do with getting it ready to race. I can remember a car from a race...50 years ago, but I can’t remember why I walked into the bedroom.

We have been studying the memory processes for years and still do not have clear answers. Long term memory appears to be impaired less than short term memory in older people. Of course, there are exceptions. You can take a group of patients with advanced Alzheimers and play music from their teenage years and they will get up and dance.

We all know about false memories. The McMartin child abuse case is a good example where incompetent mental health workers unknowlingly led small children to talk of sexual abuse, cannibalism and the like. The events never happened.

Typically, attorneys have good auditory memories, while engineers and architects have superior visual memories.

It is indeed a fascinating subject.

I like to say that my wife remembers everything about the families of old friends and men acquaintances--how many kids, their names, etc.--I remember what cars they drove.

A motorcycle wreck in 07. The meds they gave me for over a month turned most of my past into a foggy mess. I'm not sure what was and what I think was on many things.
I was a casino table games supervisor/pit boss 15 yrs .... The best times of my life '...
But the remembered moments during those times are few. Kinda like starting all over from zero.

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
I remember and still feel the love of someone very special to me almost 50 years ago. Her voice and characterism are fairly strong memories. But her image is very faded. I miss her so. Things would probably be very different today had she not died.
I weep now.

I have the same thing only about 35 years ago. Who knows how my life would have been had she not died.

There is also the disconcerting 'I remember that I once did remember'... that really sucks for being firm evidence of decline.

Another trick of memory, 'the impression'. An example: ate an indian restraunt 25 years ago. The eggplant was mushy, unseeded, and the curry was not consistent to the regional origin. What did MK order? Eggplant Biryani? Curried vegetables in yogurt? I could not even bet a dollar on it.

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
Another trick of memory, 'the impression'. An example: ate an indian restraunt 25 years ago. The eggplant was mushy, unseeded, and the curry was not consistent to the regional origin. What did MK order? Eggplant Biryani? Curried vegetables in yogurt? I could not even bet a dollar on it.

You can remember what you ate 25 years ago?

Shit, I'm barely 40 and I don't remember what I ate last week.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
Another trick of memory, 'the impression'. An example: ate an indian restraunt 25 years ago. The eggplant was mushy, unseeded, and the curry was not consistent to the regional origin. What did MK order? Eggplant Biryani? Curried vegetables in yogurt? I could not even bet a dollar on it.

You can remember what you ate 25 years ago?

Shit, I'm barely 40 and I don't remember what I ate last week.

No, I do not remember what I ate 25 years ago. I only remember my response to whatever it was that I was eating.

I read of a recent study on why we lose memories as we age, and one of the answers was almost too obvious. It seems that our "hard drives" literally become full, and the old stuff must simply be pushed out to make room for new data.

The complete picture of course is much more complex, but it's interesting that at least part of the picture is basic storage issues.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
We have been studying the memory processes for years and still do not have clear answers. Long term memory appears to be impaired less than short term memory in older people. Of course, there are exceptions. You can take a group of patients with advanced Alzheimers and play music from their teenage years and they will get up and dance.

We all know about false memories. The McMartin child abuse case is a good example where incompetent mental health workers unknowlingly led small children to talk of sexual abuse, cannibalism and the like. The events never happened.

Typically, attorneys have good auditory memories, while engineers and architects have superior visual memories.

It is indeed a fascinating subject.

This is very true for me. I have no problem remembering what I got for Christmas back in 1956 but I'll be damned if I can remember the name of a new neighbor I just met last week.