Aging is a funny thing. The experiences we have along the way make us who we are.. The people we interact with on the journey make a big difference too.. While we are living these experiences and interacting with these people we aren’t thinking to ourselves… “Will I remember this day forty years from now when questioned? Maybe I should take notes.”

This weekend, I was challenged. I had to remember people and events from forty years ago. I had to put names to faces.. At the best of times it isn’t one of my stronger skills. I remembered a lot of the old stories and to this day can’t figure out why I remember some of them so clearly. I think at the end of the day the women found it easier to recognize the women and the men easily recognized the men.. I don’t know why.. E was glad he didn’t go and I am too.. Conversations with my friends from high school are very polite and boring   civilized if their spouses are standing beside them.

For example, one of my male friends (happily married for thirty years) comes up to me and says…”See that girl. She was the first girl I kissed. It was in grade six and we kissed like this…”  He closed his lips, closed his eyes and kissed the air above his head.  “Ah shit,”  he says, as he realized it was forty eight years ago.. “I’m going to get a drink”…  Then my friend reminded me that in grade seven when three of us were entertaining the school on the stage with our folk trio I sang her solo part in our rendition of the Everyly Brothers song “Bye, Bye Love”. I didn’t remember doing that to her so asked her what she did about it… She responded that “she sang the entire rest of the song really loud, her parts and mine” … “Good for you” I said.

The next morning, I picked up the strawberries for our island jam making… I cannot for the life of me remember how much jam I made last year or any of the details so I have made notes for future reference.

I bought four flats of 15 pounds of strawberries at $2.25 per pound. I kept 22.5 pounds for myself. I made eight batches of jam with 17.5 lbs and froze the rest. Eight batches of jam made 57.5 X 8 oz jars. I used 10 kg of sugar and two cups of lemon juice.

We started to make the jam at 7 am and finished at 11:30 am…

Now I will remember what I need to know  next year to make jam. It is too late to do anything to help my memory of past events from high school. As it turns out the ability to remember places, names and events does not predicate the ability to have a good time at your forty year high school reunion. I remembered little, and recognized a few, but as it turned out I remembered all that I needed to enjoy myself.  I had

a great time