{"id":418,"date":"2013-07-12T02:08:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T02:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=418"},"modified":"2013-07-12T02:08:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T02:08:12","slug":"my-memory-isnt-gone-its-just-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=418","title":{"rendered":"My memory isn’t gone, it’s just missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Harland<\/a><\/p>\n

HARLAND BEERY<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One day I stopped by to visit my widowed father who was living alone in the family home. He was deaf, wore hearing aides, but when alone – either at home or fishing in one of the local rivers – he took\u00a0out the batteries\u00a0and carried them in a small metal box in his pocket.
\nIt was easy to keep track of him when he fished because the batteries rattled in the small box.
\nI had drive down the gravel driveway and parked in the back yard, rattled the back door (hooked from the inside), and got no response.<\/p>\n

Our front porch was glassed in with drop windows at either end for warm-weather ventilation and an inner door to the living room was also closed. Using my keys I let myself in without getting any attention.
\nAs I opened the living room door my father dashed from the bathroom hallway, across the dining room, headed for the kitchen, and talking to himself: \u201cI never knew growing old would be this way! But it happens only once!\u201d
\nUnwilling to startle him (he obviously had pocketed his batteries), I backed out and banged on the doors until his attention was gained.<\/p>\n

IT HAS TAKEN<\/b> me a few years to understand fully what he was going through. This is not a complaint, because circumstances have left us in pretty good position. Eunice, my wife of 58 years, is still alive and alert and we have a 46-year-old single son living with us.
\nErik, the son, is our landscape manager and groundskeeper, except when Ronald, 51, married with two sons, and employed stops by.
\nRon is more attuned to his father\u2019s wishes than Erik, and often brings appropriate equipment (sometimes including a grandson) and satisfies my wishes without consulting Erik.
\nBut the sons and grandsons get along, share my pickup when they like, and keep our oversized lot livable.
\nWe live on a cul-de-sac with neighbors north and south and have always had good relations with both of them. So what more can we ask.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MY FRUSTRATION<\/b> is memory loss. We have witnessed friends and relatives who suffered from aging, even Alzheimer\u2019s, and in so doing lost contact with their world and ours.
\nOn a Thursday morning last\u00a0month we were having breakfast with Fred Lewis, my 100-year-old buddy, and his lady friend, when the subject became sandwiches.
\nOne of my comments was: \u201cMy favorite sandwich is a …\u00a0\u201c\u00a0My mind went blank!
\nNo one particularly cared to know my favorite sandwich and our chatter continued.
\nAll weekend my memory challenge was the identity of my \u201cfavorite sandwich.\u201d
\nNot to worry. Our Sunday-after-church group gathers at Arby\u2019s. My sandwich is one listed and pictured above the counter. And there it was. Under the circumstances I ordered yet another Ruben (or Rueben) sandwich.<\/p>\n

None of our group thought anything about it, and I didn\u2019t tell them.<\/p>\n

THE FIRST TIME<\/b> this my mind went blank was maybe two years ago while writing a story about Silverdale. It was the name of a street that escaped me. Not to worry, by the time I finished I would think of it. Not so.
\nFirst I looked in the phone book. They used to include local street maps. None of our phone books did that.
\nNo worry. I knew a couple of people who lived on that street. However, both had side-street addresses and were no help. I couldn\u2019t find our county map. It was probably in the car. Eunice had the car.
\nTwo hours later, Eunice got home and I asked her what was Myhre Road called after it crossed the Bucklin Hill Road?
\n\u201cTracyton Blvd, you dummy!\u201d was Eunice\u2019s sharp answer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0AS AN INTERN<\/b> at the Yakima Herald-Republic it became apparent a lot of people quit talking when a reporter opened his note pad and started writing. My problem was one that every reporter has had, and was mentioned to Elwin Nellis, a veteran newsie on our copy desk.
\nHe said I had to work on the memory business. Get as much information as you think you can keep, step behind a door and a support column, write as much as you can, and repeat. He said I would be surprised at how well my memory would expand.
\nElwin was right. My belief is that it wasn\u2019t so much a memory problem as a concentration problem.
\nBy the time I became a sportswriter I could remember scores, dates, and times – all kinds of things. Of course personal interest in what you are doing, or reporting, has something to do with it.<\/p>\n

WRITING LISTS <\/b>has helped overcome memory loss. When recall of certain situations, friendships, teams, etc. capture my attention I have written lists and put them in a small box, so when a story of subject comes to mind I can go to my collection and find the appropriate list.
\nYou guessed it!
\nNow the problem is remembering where the box is hidden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARLAND BEERY   One day I stopped by to visit my widowed father who was living alone in the family…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}