Chapter One

Maintaining Your Memory

When Marilyn's mother, Carolyn, returned from vacation, she would always call her own mother, Rose, then in her 90s, and ask what had gone on in the world while she was away. Rose, who read the newspaper every day and watched the news on television every night, would bring Carolyn up to date on the details of recent world events. There was never any reason to check Rose's summary, because she always had things straight. As we write, Carolyn, now 87 herself, is currently reading the biography of a recent political figure, and as she retells some of the most interesting parts of the book, she expands the description on the basis of her own recollection of events.

    We think that Carolyn has an exceptional memory, but she doesn't think so. She regularly complains that her memory isn't what it used to be, and says that her biggest problem is coming up with names. At times she astounds us with the details of names and places from the past. At other times, a name that everyone knows will elude her. For example, we were recently talking about New York City, the city in which she was born and lived for most of her life. We were reminiscing about the political scene in the 1930s, and were surprised to see her struggle to come up with the name of the mayor at that time, La Guardia. She knew that he read the comics on the radio every Sunday morning and that the airport was named after him, but she could not come up with the name. A few minutes later, we were talking about something else and she suddenly laughed and said, "La Guardia—I knew that." This common experience is often