Robert Ebsen

I have been learning the names of the people at my mom’s new retirement home.  I remember a name by associating it with an object or famous person. I recently met Charlotte.  I picture Charlotte the spider crawling on Charlotte’s shoulder. Yesterday I ate lunch with my mom and a woman named Audrey.  I think of her as an older Audrey Hepburn.  I try to use people’s names whenever I see them.

Is it foolish, or even wrong, to try to remember the names of so many people?  People are happy when I remember their names. Sometimes they say to me, “I’m so happy you came up to me, remembered my name, and talked to me.”  That feels good.

In the one week mom has been at her new residence, I have learned 20 names. Ninety people are at the residence, so I am almost one-fourth of the way there.  It is a good exercise for my brain.  Perhaps it is a way to keep Alzheimer’s at bay.

The Peg Memory system, which I practice, works well with words, but not with names.  In the Peg Memory system, each number is associated with a key word: 1 is “tie,” 2 is “Noah.”   For example, when I want to remember that the second thing on my list is an apple, I try to make a very strange picture in my head of Noah on the ark eating a huge red apple. When I need to bring up the second item on my list, I picture Noah, and I can see him eating an apple.

If I try to use the Peg system to recall the name Charlotte, I would have to remember that Charlotte was the second person I met, and that she was with Noah.  That’s not a good association at all.

I volunteered to teach a memory class at the new retirement home.

I thought of getting a roster of the names of all the people at mom’s residence.  That way I could practice my memory system in advance – even before I teach a class there.  Would that be cheating?  I like others to use name labels when teaching new classes. Would using name labels be cheating in a memory class?

Why do I want to learn all the seniors’ names?  Perhaps because in a coming life they will remember me, just like my genealogy-located ancestors.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com