The American Spectator

Reader Mail

To Know Him

11.5.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 6)

I have problems with Rudy, but I've come to the point where I can support him. And as I see how the Left loathes him, I'm about to put the Mayor at the top of my list.
-- -- Peter Skurkiss
Stow, Ohio

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS
Re: Lawrence Henry's Losing Words:

I too, like Mr. Henry, have started experiencing these disconcerting lapses of memory. (I'm about to turn 58.) When it happens I'm reminded of a story that my mother told me when it started happening to her. At a check-up she said to the doctor, "Doctor, I'm finding lately that I'll go into a room and forget why I went in there." The doctor replied, "Mary Jane, when you go into that room and you don't remember what room it is, call me."
-- Bill Carroll
Newhall, California

I can completely identify with Mr. Henry's experience of "losing words." In fact, I, too, have always had a good memory, but no longer. Rather, it is selective. I remember mostly trivia in my life. I confuse the first three numbers of my Social Security number with the first three numbers of my phone number. Once I had to look up my phone number in my cell phone directory, which is why it's there in the first place.

I am a very good speller, or was. Now I find that sometimes the spelling of the most ordinary words don't readily come to mind. Once, introducing a very old friend to another friend, I forgot her name. Completely!

The only consolation is that almost all my friends have the same problem. Most of us now carry a notepad or PDA with all the most important information on it, so a quick check will give us the information. Embarrassing? Yes. Inevitable? Unfortunately, yes. For most of us.

Thanks for sharing, it makes me feel a little better, somehow.
-- Margaret Schlosser
Bethany Beach, Delaware

How old is Lawrence Henry? This memory thing happens to me all the time and I'm 86! Now I don't feel so bad!
-- Nancy B. Eckardt
Sheboygan Wisconsin

Mr. Henry, I have a suspicion you made many a person laugh tonight. Do I understand? You bet. Try describing a radiator to a mechanic on a cold day. The word was frozen or something and would not appear in my mind. Well, at about five in the afternoon it came bouncing out when not needed, of course.

I have learned to write down what I am ordering over the phone, I write down the order, and my phone number. Yes, it gets that bad sometimes.

I seem to rattle easier than I used to, I have misplaced my phone number in my mind when younger, but it just seemed funny at that age. Well, it is still funny, we have to make it funny or we go downhill a lot faster.

There are good days and bad days with this gift of forgetting something you know you forgot. Did I say that right?

Anyway, my friends and I get together and tell each other the truth about this and there are many funny moments to tell about.

I have a problem with my hands, things jump out of them. Don't laugh, this is true. I was in the grocery store the other day and I was at the end of the "thing" you put your groceries on, not near the cashier. I picked up a small jar of face cream and as I went to put it down, it jumped from my hand and land right in front of the cashier. It actually looked like I was throwing it at her, but, of course, I wasn't.

Well, no words would work with this one, but she saved me, she said "well, I hope this is not the start of our relationship?" All the staring people laughed and I laughed too, bless her.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Education, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Social Security, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Global Warming, Hollywood, Movies, Constitution, Law, Iraq, Iran, NATO, Socialism, Communism, Fascism