Juliet drew my attention to some vegetation as we sped along the gravel. “Look at the size of those huge dandelion seed heads along the shoulder of the road!”
Since I was driving, I had nothing more than a cursory glance at them. After my mind did some quick calculations, I came up with, “Nah, they’re too big, they’re slightly brownish, not pure white. They can’t be dandelions…must be goatsbeard.” I learned of goatsbeard in biology class in 1959, over 60 years ago.
When we got home, I checked with Google Images, the repository of all knowledge.
I was right! However, don’t ask me the name of the person I met just a few minutes ago, or where I left my credit card. Memory can play games with capriciousness.
I can tell you what building is just over the next hill, even though I haven’t driven that rural road for more than a decade. Our 1950 phone number in Toronto was KE 2212. The licence plate of my 1971 VW Squareback was BHA 746. My 1962 Beetle’s was L7924. By some puzzling coincidence, L7924 was also the file number of the chest X-ray I had taken that year. CF-GDG was the registration of the Fairchild Cornell, the second airplane I ever had a flight in. I can even tell you what five different designs evolved from the Avro Manchester bomber prototype of the late 1930s.
How’s your memory these days? Remember to click your seat belt, and look both ways before you cross the road, and don’t forget to buy some bananas, (or was it strawberries?) the next time you go into town. Remember, it’s one of the items on your to-do list – if you can find it. Be sure to use it.
Pilots (commercial, test and military) must be a forgetful bunch: they have pages and pages of laminated check lists for start-ups, take-offs, landings and emergency situations. My memory is absolutely perfect, sometimes.
