It’s become rather apparent to me of late that I can’t remember nothin’. As contradictory as that last statement is I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Not only is the day to day process of remembering things and short term memory failing little by little but the act remembering years past is also getting pretty foggy. And here I thought the older a person got the clearer those old memories were supposed to become.

Apparently not.

I found this out over the last year or so when the my old shipmates finally tracked me down via this site and invited me to join the USS Silversides page on Facebook. Once there the story swapping began in earnest and of course, I joined in. I thought I hadn’t forgot a single detail of those days aboard the boat but after several months of “recalling” events that occurred back then I’ve found out otherwise.

Names of guys whose faces I’ve never forgotten alluded me. Remembering certain events clearly but mixing up the people involved and insisting it was those people only to find out I was wrong. Things like that that kept repeating on a constant basis. Those who never served wouldn’t realize how bothersome this is to someone who has, especially if that person served in an environment as intense as the Cold War submarine force. You never forget. It bothers me that I have.

Forgetting things, being reminded of something I need to do or take and forgetting 3 minutes after being reminded I figure is all a part of the here and now–a part of getting older. It’s not supposed to happen to the past as well.

Not much more to say about this I suppose and I figure some would say that it is, in fact, all a part of growing older but the fact is I’m not that old–yet. I know I feel much older than my years in many ways but in a few ways younger as well. I figure that’s the way it’s supposed to be? I for one have no idea. All I know is I seem to be forgetting more and more as time goes on and though it may sound strange–I miss my memories.