Reminiscing can be tricky if we can’t trust our memories

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I was preparing for a radio interview last Friday morning and searching frantically for some old baseball reference books so that I might appear as well-informed as I like to think I am. And whenever I am desperately trying to find something, I will almost always remember what my old pappy used to say, “Whatever it is you’re looking for is always in the very last place you look…”

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Thanks, Dad.

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I had searched almost everywhere and there remained but one last hope. I had no choice…I had to go down there. As I rummaged through the cobwebs and stacks of plastic storage bins, in the gloomy old cellar, I finally located the baseball books in one of the bins. And alongside the books was a dusty banker’s box, labeled “Keepsakes & Mementos” in my very own scrawl. I was immediately intrigued and couldn’t resist taking a peek. The dozen or so legal-size folders proved to be a treasure trove of memories containing, among other things, my high school diploma, several old photos, my original driving test from 1962, and the bill of sale for my very first car.

I quickly realized that I would be spending more than just a few minutes strolling along Memory Lane, so I carried the banker’s box (along with the aforementioned baseball reference books) back upstairs, where the air was much fresher, dryer, and mostly free of cobwebs.

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Sitting alone at the dining room table, I frittered away the next hour happily recalling my teenage years as some of the best years of my life. And isn’t that what makes treasured memories so wonderful? They are yours to remember as you choose to remember them. Or perhaps it is simply what pleases you most at a particular time. Long-term memories were once thought to be permanently etched into our brain – indestructible and unchanging. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that memories are surprisingly vulnerable and highly dynamic. Every time we remember something, the memory is altered to some extent. Imagination can add and remove things from a memory each time it is accessed. And let’s be honest, having the option to edit every once in a while can be beneficial. But why is it that our brains choose to make memories so unreliable? If memories were less subject to change, we wouldn’t suffer the embarrassment of misremembering the details of an important conversation or the specifics of a first date. Memory has a way of playing tricks with the human mind. Some facts are blurred; some remain crystal clear, while others simply vanish! And astonishing as it may seem, we actually forget as much as 80 percent of our past life.

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Another question: how is it determined what gets remembered and what doesn’t? Why in the name of all that’s holy can I recall the words and melody to a decades old toothpaste commercial (“You’ll wonder where the yellow went…when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent…”), the names of all my teachers from kindergarten through high school, but not what we had for dinner last night?

And how is it that some memories are lodged in a Permanent Recall file while others end up in the Delete Bin?

Ultimately I suppose we must grudgingly admit that we can’t fully trust our memories.

But that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying them.

Terry serves up a little food-for-thought each and every week and welcomes readers’ comments: countrysunshine@xplornet.ca

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