Do you remember rock n roll radio....

I was thinking earlier this week about losing Miss Cleo and getting Sebastian. And then I got to thinking back to the cars I’ve had, and then to the cars my parents have had (yeah, this is how my mind works...very stream of consciousness...ish). They got a 1977 Chrysler station wagon and had nothing but problems with it. That made my dad swear off Chrysler products forever. But as I’m remembering this, suddenly the license plate number popped into my head: 757-797.

Why the hell, I wondered, would I remember that? And just as I though of that, I recalled something else. When I was a freshman in college, 1986-1987, I rented a room from a family in the town the college was in. I had my own phone number: 532-7623. And when I was little, my grandparents’ phone number was 762-3394. And then I remembered I was sitting in my 7th grade English class in March 1981 when we got work that President Reagan had been shot. And then for some reason, I thought about Sesame Street and how they taught me to count to 10 in Spanish…and I can still do it. And then I remembered 9th grade Latin class, first day, the teacher told us he would teach us something today that we would NEVER forget: the six tense endings to Latin words. O, S, T, Mus, Tis, and NT. And I STILL remember them!

Yet, despite all these totally random, totally trivial, and even more importantly, totally useless things, I can’t tell you what I had for supper Monday night. Nor can I remember to let the dog out after work one day when Mom’s not gonna be home. Nor can I can remember to watch the second installment Sunday night, of the Life series on the National Geographic channel that I want to try to watch all of. Nor can I remember my doctor’s appointments without calling and asking them. Nor can I consistently remember to grab the two granola bars each day to bring to work for breakfast.

But by GOD I remember the license plate number to a car I haven’t seen since probably 1982 or 1983! I guess it’s just that all the other stuff, I’ve known for much longer and I used them repeatedly. But I’ve only had to let the dog out once. I mean with the others, they’re recent and not something I repeated over and over again. So that’s what I’m chalking it all up to.

And NOT old age.

POLT