Human Memory

A Complex Subject, but a simple example.

I am reading a good little book on human memory. What a great reminder of how powerful and flawed our memories are. Thousands of days of “routine” comings and going, lost, for now, to me, as I focused on “events” but not “routine”. I wish I had savored more “ordinary moments”, especially with our children, and our friends and family.

I recommend this book, but this post is about just one memory that has returned to me over the years.

I had to be in my thirties, as I was working with John Holy and Bob Morris, in Holy, Hunter, and Morris, Attorneys at Law, of Weston, WV.

Parking was always a bit of a chore near the Lewis County Courthouse which has no parking lot, so I had at least a block or two to walk.

The event took perhaps one minute to unfold.

I saw a small figure “chugging along”, short steps, but fast, and clearly as long a stride at the walker could travel. As he came closer, I saw he had a smile on his face.

As much as I love my Alma Mater, Wesleyan College, I miss students walking along, ready to smile and greet, not with a solemn look or viewing their phones with heads down. But we live in an era of change. “Face to Face” is no longer easy.

As we closed the distance, we greeted one another, and he, unsolicited, said,

“I’m 98 years old. Gotta keep moving.” (or, as lawyers say, “words to that effect”)

Now, I’m 80, but I take his example, and my 91-year-old choirmate, Bot Cole’s, and my Grandmother, Lolo Sarah (Filson) Hunter’s, who was born in 1884 and passed at age 99, and Nancy’s Mother Marjorie Goodfellow, who made it to 102, as examples of how to approach life, as long as we have it.

“KEEP MOVING!”

Then it occurred to me, if my memory happened @ 1980, that man must now be over 140! :)