Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?

Subject: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:21 PM

Was at our weakly sinaround 2nite. Someone requested I sing 'Peasant & delightful'

Buger me! Sang ''Twas plesant & delghtful one midsumers morn- then couldn't think wot came next!

Had to improvise with 'When something or other was covered in corn, & something or other sang on evry green spray..'

then all the rest miraculously came back to me & i did the complete sog without a flaw.

Anyone else experienced moments like these?

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:23 PM

Then later, when I left the room to check the facilities- the missing words came immediately to me- buggeration!!

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:25 PM

"Anyone else experienced moments like these?"

Yes, my friend. All of 1967.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:26 PM

It started when I was 35, Mr. Happy. I really haven't been able to memorize a song successfully since then, but I can still remember the songs I learned in college. I hate it when people struggle to recall lyrics of songs they know perfectly well, so I swallow my pride and use "cheat sheets" or a songbook. If somebody doesn't like that, screw 'em. I wish more people would use "helps," although it does make their repertoire less portable.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:27 PM

"Anyone else experienced moments like these?"

Yes, my friend. All of 1967.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:28 PM

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Elvish raider
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:35 PM

I see that sinarounds are catching on - see Sinaround thread. But what, I wonder is a sog?

Of course it happens to everyone - I can remember finishing a song, having to precis the missing verse, and then as soon as I sat down the whole of the offending escapee verse rematerialised.

Now what was I saying....?

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:49 PM

It's a snog wi'owt th'en!












But I still got one o' those- not all me faculties've faded!

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:50 PM

I find that tablets of Pregnenolone have really made a difference. It might be a placaebo effect of course - I still come back from the shops without something I need, but not every time.

I was finding that I was forgetting words when speaking - now that is really frightening, and even now I will be unable to access the hard disk for several minutes to find a word which I know I know, but can't recall. Weird.

Still - my mother never got to this age, so I should be grateful just to be here.

Anne

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:58 PM

Pregnent alone=immaculate conception?

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Barry T
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 09:01 PM

Senior Moments is politically incorrect, Mr. Happy.

They're called Golden Moments. ;-)

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: jimmyt
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 09:07 PM

Mr H   I think it is a problem we all face.   I find lyrics to be real unpredictable when it comes to remembering them and sometimes it is the stuff you are the most familiar with that become the most elusive!   Hang in there   Hope you are doing well! jimmyt

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Nancy King
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 10:12 PM

I seem to have enough room in my brain for a finite number of songs at any given time. If I learn a new one (rare enough, sad to say), then an old one drops out. Unfortunately, I never know which one has dropped out until I try to sing it...

Like Joe, I tend to rely on cheat sheets. I'd love to be able to do without them, but I think it's less disruptive to sneak a peek at a piece of paper than it is to stand there rolling my eyes to the ceiling and mumbling, "ummm...er...dammit...what IS that verse..."   

Someone once sent my late mother a poem which started out, "Of all the things I've had and lost, I miss my mind the most." Wish I had the rest of it. The poem, I mean... The mind too, I guess...

Nancy

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 10:42 PM

In the recent 'Tribute to Slim Dusty' TV special - Aussie made and shown on aussie TV - there were several Big Name professional performers - some of them who obviously did not know their material off by heart - who used cheat sheets: some even were wearing reading glasses!

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: tarheel
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 11:15 PM

happens to me alot,but i laugh it off and tell the audience that i had a "senior moment!" seems to satisfy most in the audience,particularly those around my age too!...lol
byt hey, laughter is the best medicine for these kind of things...
i find laughing at myself reall helps the adrenlin flow better...
safter all,when you are live,you are not perfect and never will be...not on everything you play or sing!

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: LadyJean
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 11:30 PM

I have an eidetic memory. I am experiencing some memory loss, as I slog on to my fifth decade. But I'm the only one who notices.
I wonder if it's dying brain cells, or the hardrive is just overloaded.
My cousin John is now past 90, and he does forget recent events, except when my sister came to visit and brought five dogs of various shapes and sizes with her. That made an impression. At least the rottweiller didn't bite him.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 11:42 PM

My recent memory ptoblems are a direct result of my MS. (Sttuff attacking that part of the brain.) Knowing that though does not help a bit. And when people say things like, "Oh, everyone has those problems---'specially with age"---well, it drives me nuts. I KNOW mine is worse---but they are just trying to make things easier for me and I do appreciate it. At first, my main problem was the first lines of songs all through the late 80s and 90s. I made a notebook with ALL of the first few lines to every song I knew. That helped some.

My stock line---whenever it happened---was: "When your memory goes, forget it !!!!!"

You are all welcome to that line---and no need to give me credit. I can't remember if I made it up---or stole it!!   ;-) But that was true of most of my jokes. Hell, it's just the folk process!!

I am sorry when I repeat myself here in these threads. More often than not I've forgotten I said it before. Yes, once it's safely in the past and not a part of "recent memory", I'll probably remember it.

Suck is life. (I mean, SUCH is life.)

Art

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 06:23 AM

It also makes a difference where in a room you sing. At least it does at Uxbridge FC. There is one particular piece of carpet about a metre square that affects the recall of anyone who stands on it. Performers in the know tend to move around to avoid it. The only problem is that IT moves around too.

I promise that the excuse I give will the whole excuse and nothing but the excuse so help me.......what was your name again?

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Micca
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 06:59 AM

These are sometimes called CRAFT moments in the Uk as in "Can't Remember An F***ing Thing"
I use cheat sheets too, I would rather be embarrassed by having cheat sheets than by "umm-ing" and "err-ing" in the middle of a song, and If you want to go for MAXIMUM embarrassment try forgetting the words of a song you wrote!! that is really bad. especially hen the song went through several dafts and you get side tracked into a dead end verse that was not included in teh final version.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:01 AM

'Do I come here often?'

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:14 AM

one of my friends stopped mid verse said "How could I forget I have amnesia" so I now use that line, but I might appropriate Art's line, if I can remember it.

I'm (only) 52 - well, almost 53 & two years from retirement, but I've had problems with memory since school, & I wonder how I will go as I get older.

Mingulay, we have a black cloud that hangs around sessions & has followed us from the Glengarry, to the Shannon & now into folks living rooms & folk clubs. Are you sure it is your carpet, maybe it's really our black cloud traveling around the world.

sandra

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:14 AM

I recall (sometimes) doing Pete Coe's Alderley Edge and completely losing the fourth verse , so played it right through , instrumenal THEN rembered it . I was congratulated on a SUPERB rendition of the song !! - - -
(Fooled 'em AGAIN)

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: MojoBanjo
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:24 AM

About three years ago at 50 I had a stroke -- one that did some real strange damage to my left hand in terms of rhythm and such. I didn't play for a year, then, one morning, woke up knowing I could play again. Sure enough, I could. Since then I've taken up the banjo but went with clawhammer rather than Scruggs as I kind of did before. Anyway, I have found that I have some real problems with words sometimes, not only drop off but they can get tangled a bit -- try the tongue twister (for me) Cripple Creek really fast! Sheesh!

I've never used cheats, but now I find I need them now and then. Not to read word for word, but they seem to kickstart a song, either instrumental or vocal. Also, my 18 year old son is playing drums with me now and it shifts my joy, as it were, in making music and is good medicine.

I suspect the alternative is to be dead, so I have little choice but to live with all this. Thanks for letting me sigh and vent a little. Don't get to do it much.

Mojo

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Splott Man
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:34 AM

People's names do it for me. Over the last few years I've made a lot of new friends and acqaintances at festivals.
I tend to avoid trying to introduce people because their names just will not come, or I have their name grouped with a couple of others in my memory bank (don't ask me why, it just happens. For instance Neil and Mark are interchangeable).

When challenged I say that in middle age, in order to expand my repertoire as a singer, I've had to use up that area of my brain normally reserved for names and faces.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:35 AM

I think there are actually very few folksingers who carry all the details of their repertoire around in their heads, tho that is the image we have, and often cultivate. Remembering every word, every key and arrangement, every historical detail of the introduction? I don't think so! Our current set list? MAYBE.

Most folks I know need at least a bit of pre-gig review if not a complete song sheet-- especially folks with day jobs or other responsibilities taking up valuable gray-disk space. But that ain't how we make it SEEM in performance, so people figger any request just activates the jukebox. It just don't work that way.

The time to worry is when stuff you normally CAN recall starts to slide sideways. There can be so many causes for that, it's best in practical terms to let a doctor (or other professional) interview the clues out of you.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Nancy King
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:32 AM

A friend of mine explained her song-memory lapses as "insufficient RAM."

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:20 PM

"Senior Moments" have been re-christened as "CRAFT moments" as in "Can't Remember A Flaming Thing"
And at that I may have mis-remembered the fourth word of the phrase.

I am at that stage in life where I think more about the "Hereafter". I get into a different room and ask "What am I here after?"


CHEERS

Nigel

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:11 PM

I do remember that there are two distinct things that happen to us as we become "Seniors"
The first is the ability to easily forget things
The second is........ is............ermmmm, well...............guess I forgot!
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:37 PM

Memory is the second thing to go, GS.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: beetle cat
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:55 PM

urgh im forgetting lyrics at 18- hate to think of when I get older.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mudlark
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 12:11 AM

Thanks to all for this reassuring thread. If I've not sung something within the last month, I'm afraid to trot it out in front of strangers. And although I try to recycle my repertoire while practicing, 40 years of singing is too much to keep in the air.   Just finished a gig at a Hospice ceremony and was so grateful that I got thru the dedication song w/out relapse...I hate it that I can't count on myself any more to remember. I see cheat sheets in my future, tho I've shunned them all these years. But with all its problems, aging is still better than the alternative, and making music (tho sometimes more stressful) is still a joy.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 12:14 AM

Wal, Nance, I have never heard you miss a syllable in all the songs I have heard you sing.... maybe it's the toping of good California red that does it. But I can't tell whether it is responsible for enhancing your memory, or just decimating mine!! LOL

Love,



A

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: annamill
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 02:06 PM

Gee! When we have a SINaround, we don't generally NEED words...

Art, you might remember that my daughter also has MS. When she forgets a word she says "Whoops! I have a run in my mylons".

When her three rambunctious children start getting to be too much, she puts her hands on her head and goes "Pop! Pop! Pop!' and the kids say "Oh no! We're popping Mommy's mylons!".

She's a funny lady.

I've been having the same problem and it also has me worried. My Mom has althiemers(sp).(old timers) It's good to know forgetting is sometimes caused just getting older.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Bert
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 02:32 PM

My short term memory is shot to hell due to thyroid problems. And despite what the quacks say taking the supplement has never comletely fixed the problem.

I used to use a cheat sheet but found that it made matters worse as I tended to rely on it too much (lazy bugger).

So I just practise what I intend to sing that night and don't do requests.

Thanks Art for permission to use that line, 'cos despite practise I still forget a line now and then.

And Micca, we call thise moments CRS 'Can't Remember Shit' I think we had a thread about it way back.

I've always had problems remembering peoples names, Dunno why.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 12:43 PM

Brucie you may be right but:-
So much money is being spent by people on Breast enhancement and Viagra and so little being spent on Altzheimers disease at present...that...in about 40yrs time there will be so many old women with lovely breasts and so many old men with stiff willies who no longer know why?
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 02:40 PM

GS,

That's the funniest post you've ever made! :D

A

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 04:23 PM

Why thank you Amos! I do write joke poetry and make up jokes at times but can't lay claim to that one unfortunately. There do seem to be many viagra jokes around.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 04:28 PM

I was going to put something else on here but I seem to have forgotten what it was!
Ah well, there's always yesterday....or is it tomorrow?
Best wishes

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 08:10 PM

I recall one time I launched right into a song, but I started singing the second verse. And then when the real second verse came around, I sang it again. 'Course, inwardly I was mortified, but I just laughed it off and told the audience that I like the second verse so much I sang it twice.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Harmoni
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 08:13 PM

Now THAT'S scary....I forgot to type my name in before submitting the previous post!!!

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 08:15 PM

Good one, GS. I heard one that went, "Do you realize that in forty years there's gonna be lots of little ol' ladies with tattoos?"

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 04:30 AM

......and then there's tunes.I've sometimes inadvertantly played the 'A' part of a melody or air, followed by the 'B' part of of a totally different tune.

Or even misremembered a whole tune & in the process, accidentally evolved a whole new one. I've had people say stuff like 'that's a nice tune- it sounds a bit like '***' or '****'!

No coincidence eh?

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 04:33 AM

Dont forget to remember not to forget to remember.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 08:04 PM

and if ever I return again, it will be in the ........er..volvo

saying fare thee well my Nancy, you're the girl that I .......well you know the sort of thing.....

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 09:37 PM

"She done stomped on my heart; she mashed that sucker flat."

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 10:12 PM

HEY!!

My thyroid stopped working a decade ago - I was just told to keep taking the tablets - so one of the side effects could be a bad memory.

That explains a lot.

Anne

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 22 Dec 04 - 10:28 AM

A friend who was beginning to experience memory loss went to the doctor. The doctor told him he should start writing things down. One day the friend was watching TV with his wife and he said, "I think I'll go fix me a snack--you want anything?"
She said, "Yes, I'd like a bowl of ice cream, but you better write it down."
He protested that he could remember something as easy as ice cream, but she said, "But I want some whipped cream on it, so you better write it down."
"Oh, that's easy," said he, but she said, Yes, but I want a cherrie on top--you better write it down."
He went into the kitchen still claiming to be able to remember it. He was in there for a while and when he came back he presented her with a plate of bacon and eggs! She looked at him in disbelief for a moment, then said, "John, you forgetful thing! Where's my toast?!"

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 22 Dec 04 - 09:13 PM

I do not know why I'm finding these thing funny.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 23 Dec 04 - 04:11 PM

I'm ok with songs, but everything else just falls out of my head...names, times, dates, places...i'm always going into a room, forgetting why i went in...then standing there for five whole minutes trying to remember before giving up and buggering off again. The worst part is i'm only seventeen. I think it's juvenile dementia.

Subject: RE: Remembering&Forgetting:SeniorMoments?
From: Peace
Date: 23 Dec 04 - 04:41 PM

Without a doubt it's juvenile dementia. I have had it since I was your age. It doesn't get better. Go ahead, try that ginko balogna stuff; use essential oils; eat 3-6-9 fatty acids. You will remember that you smell fine and when you burp, bingo, sardines.