Member-only story
Quick Memory-Change Tip
Some recollections are less helpful than others
It was a warm summer day and the boat masts clanged. They knocked together in the light breeze across the harbor as I reluctantly dipped into my first (and last) cornet of winkles.
“Just try one. You might like it.”
Eleanor doesn’t enjoy hesitation. She’s a ‘get on with it’ woman.
I sniffed my meal. Salt and an unfamiliar dubious taste hit the back of my throat before I’d even placed a morsel in my mouth.
“Why the reluctance?”
I didn’t want to frustrate her, but something made me wince about popping a squishy-looking dead critter into my stomach. Still, I did it anyway and discovered I was right all along. It was, according to my palate, disgusting.
Even now as a vegetarian the memory of that day, leaning against a statue in the tiny fishing village where I grew up while staring into the winkle cornet remains.
And experiences that engage the senses are like that: They create dents in the psyche we revisit with ease, whether or not we want to.
Like the time I slammed the car door ‘before’ I’d moved my fingers out of the way. How crazy is that? Naturally, the experience went straight to my memory bank, ready to pull out and…
