I take vitamins for memory loss... and I'm not sure if they're working. But those 'how-to enhance your memory' books? They definitely don't do it for me...that I do know. Could be because I read them in bed before I go to sleep... and they're a wonderful sleeping aid. Thing is, when I wake up, I forgot what I read.
When I read them at my desk, I'm always flipping back to see what I misread, or failed to remember. A double whammy there.
I've tried listening to memory tapes to exercise the memory muscles. It ends up being an exercise in futility. I start focusing on the soft, gentle and sometimes ethereal melodies. I guess I should give the tapes some credit, because it's the music that helps my memory. But only because I start to reminisce:
"Wait a min... those few notes sound like they're lifted from Eleanor Rigby. 1966. Yeah, yeah, yeah... playing Little League and going to PS # 1."
Another couple of notes can bring me to an entirely different time period:
"Huh? That tune's gotta be something from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon."
It conjures up a whole 'nother set of images from my college days: some of my best ones and well...some best forgotten.
Or, I'll hear another brand of accompanying music:
"Whaaaaat? Tune sounds like it's right out of Les Miz. No...hold on...that's lifted from Phantom! Let's see, where was I back then...? Oh yeah, playing softball in the Broadway Show League...ah yeah, good times. Except when we were down by one, two outs, bases loaded and the left fielder from Blue Man Group made a diving catch on me."
It's all great if you want to revisit where you were and what you were doing when that particular music was prominent in your life.
These days, the key for me is remembering who I was introduced to just minutes ago. That's the big challenge. Along with trying to remember where I put those vitamins.