It was a pleasant dinner with friends – six of us at a local restaurant, enjoying the food and conversation. Then something typical happened when one man mentioned having heard a great lecture by a famous American playwright.
“Who?” we asked. First came the blank look, then the struggle:
“Uh, really famous – still alive . . .”
“What did he write?”
“I think there was something about a buffalo!”
“Oh, Mamet!”
“No, begins with an A.”
Five minutes later, it turned out that the animal wasn’t a buffalo; it was a goat. And the playwright was Edward Albee. It took all six of us to remember. Sometimes I feel I need a committee to help me remember where I left the keys, and definitely to help me recall a name I’ve always known.
Fortunately, it appears that my forgetting is in the very normal range, and the also normal functioning of my brain is evidenced in an ability to keep learning new things. I know that there is some I can’t or shouldn’t try to learn, like rollerblading (I can trip in sneakers!), but others, like using an iPad or knitting I can handle.
ElderChicks 
September 1 is always bitter sweet to me now. Today would have been my 65th Anniversary! And what a wonderful day that was! I remember it like it was yesterday and—and love remembering …
oy! can I relate to that!…Hannah
I’m 53 and don’t remember much either. I love the idea that it takes a Committee. Thanks for the insight.
But there’s so much more to remember the older we get. I like to think that I forget things just to make room for the new things I want to remember.