I woke up today thinking about memory.
It may have been that while I slept I was subconsciously rolling, squeezing and shaping that lump of experience I had had at Best Buy the previous morning. I went there hoping to learn how to use my new iPad to store song lyrics, so we could move away from the fat gray binder filled with printed lyrics that Retro Dan and I use when we play our retro gigs.
Now, I accept that I am a stereotypical seasoned citizen who has trouble maneuvering through the modern tech world I find myself in, but at least on this particular midweek morning I felt I was not alone; every person in line at the Geek Squad window waiting for tech support was a seasoned citizen, just like me.
The gray binder has served us well enough, but it is cumbersome, the spine is broken and it is fat to overflowing with lyric sheets. Some of the lyrics are torn and/or handwritten on notebook paper. Some are pretty old and wrinkled (seasoned?). We sometimes have issues when it is windy or when it rains. The idea is to move the Retro Brothers’ equipment into a somewhat less, well, retro way of doing things. I know there is an efficient way to get these songs onto the new device, it is just that I am not yet practiced on how to do it.
It is important to me to get the lyrics right as we do these old songs. Considering how my memory for lyrics hasn’t been nearly as good as it was when I was a teenager these memory cues are vital, especially to a band calling itself “Retro.” (Speaking of that. How is it I can recall songs I learned as a kid with no problem, I can sing them in my sleep, but newer song lyrics won’t stay in my head without a “cheat sheet” even after multiple performances? Somebody has done the research, I am sure.)
Still thinking about memory, I crawled out of bed and, eventually, proceeded through the morning rituals. Becky and I read and discussed some inspirational writing as we drank coffee. After that, I logged on to catch up on the latest human follies and modern miracles and what opinion-makers and professional pundits had to say about them. We discussed these, as well. Eventually, I made it to some other kinds of reading. Poetry, for example.
Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac website is always a treat for me. This day’s poem was “Moonrise, Aurora, Nebraska” by Twila Hanson. The poet speaks of how the moon looked as she was driving one morning: “a mere dot-glow above dun fields.” Later in the poem she recalls the memory of that vision: “it is here/looming in memory-mind/the fat orange ball above the horizon/“
Isn’t this how our memories often go? She originally sees the moon as a “dot-glow” but later remembers it as a “fat orange ball.” I know I sometimes wonder, especially if it is an old memory, if I am correctly remembering the details of this thing that happened, or if I have altered and embellished my “memory-mind” picture.
But, now I am thinking about the birthday party Becky and I will attend this weekend. It’s our neighbor Benjamin’s third birthday celebration. He likes when I play my guitar, so I will probably play a song for him. I don’t remember much at all about my third year of life, and Benjamin likely won’t remember the details of his. Perhaps early events build more of an overall sense of the past rather than a specific memory of a certain time. Anyway, it will be a memory some of us will remember.
Maybe I will play some songs I absorbed when I was a little kid. That way, I won’t need an iPad or cheat sheet.
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
