My secret is out. I have a terrible short-term memory. It became apparent when my son got the game Hedbanz for Christmas. In this game, every player wears a headband that holds a secret card of “what you are” and all the other players give you hints until you can figure out which card is on your headband.
The kids refuse to let me keep notes and I cannot remember which questions I have asked and what their hints were. A game with me goes something likethis…AmIavegetable? “No, not really, well, kind of.”
What kind of answer is that?
Now three other players ask questions and get hints…back tome…”WasIavegetableor not?”
“Mom you already asked that!”
Well maybe but I don’t think I was given a sufficient answer.”
“No, you are not a vegetable!”
“OKamIafruit?”
“You can’t ask two questions on your turn!” Three more players and questions…now I am really confused.
“AmIafoodofanykind, fruit or vegetable?”
“Mom you can’t ask a double question!”
I gave up….it turns out I was a mushroom. Silly game. Can’t we play ’80s Trivia or something I might be good at?
I went to the grocery store to buy BLT ingredients and I came out with $27 worth of groceries and no lettuce. (I forgot what the “L” stood for.)
There is no chance I could ever count cards in Vegas when I can’t remember if I fed the dogs this morning. Ladies, feel free to tell me all your secrets because when I say your secret is safe with me—it really is. I will probably forget who told me what about whom within 15 minutes.
My daughter hates this. She tells me all the time I have a terrible memory. Like her pointing it out is going to make it any better. She thinks I do it just to irritate her. Between you and me, she is probably lucky I have a bad memory because I still manage to do her favors even though she might have been crabby at me just hours earlier.
There are some huge advantages to me having short-term memory loss. It forces me to make lists of “To Dos” every morning so I don’t forget someone, somewhere. I also don’t really mind bad weather because I can’t remember what it was like the day before, anyway. If the sun is shining now, that’s good enough for me. I think I call my mother more than anyone I know because I am not sure if I talked to her yet this week. Thank goodness my mom has a bad memory too, so she and I share the same news over and over. It’s just good to hear her voice.
I also smile and say hi to everyone just in case I might know them. This leads to meeting new people all the time. This, my friend is not a bad thing.
For the record, a mushroom is neither a vegetable nor a fruit…it is a fungus. Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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