Pam Webb

BMW Moments

Have you lately experienced any of the following?

a. At the store you see one aisle over that person from (fill in the blank) and want to say “Hi” but forgot their name, so you avoid their aisle and suddenly become interested in something to avoid meeting up with them.

b. You are watching a movie and an actor steps into the scene, you know who they are, and can even recall all the other movies you’ve seen them in, but their name is just out of reach.

c. You’re out in the garage looking for that one tool needed for your project and can’t locate it so you ask if anyone has seen it but right then you’ve lost the actual name of it so you invent a close facsimile like “air blower” for the “leaf blower.”

Any of these ring true for you?

I call them BMW moments. Not to be confused with this:

It’s more like this:

A BMW moment is what I have come to call “Brief Missing Word” moments. It’s where for a nanosecond (or sometimes longer) the name or term, that needed word that is hovering just out of reach cannot be reeled in by those little grey cells (Poirot no doubt had those brain glitches now and then).

In my younger days, about ten plus years ago, I noticed this would happen when I was teaching. I’d merrily be explaining something to my students and suddenly the word I needed evaporated right when I needed it. Most perplexing and vastly irritating.

My hubs eased my concern saying my brain is a computer and like a computer its memory files just needed some defragmentation. Plus being tired no doubt also affected my memory recall.

I bought it and learned to adjust becoming adept at word switching or talking around the missing word through descriptive embellishments.

Once retired, I thought with my mind less filled with lesson planning, grading, evaluation demands, etc. my brain files would have more space. And sleeping in, along with naps, meant being less tired. Right?

Nope, BMW moments were becoming more of a regular feature of my life. So, I naturally think dementia and go to my doctor. He gives the test.

I pass.

His comment is that I shouldn’t worry about those missing word moments unless I start forgetting the names of my children or husband or start putting my car keys in the refrigerator.

Okay. I can accept that. I’m learning to live with those brief missing moments.

Now as soon as I find my keys I can go to that one store so get that thing. Maybe what’s his face has seen my keys.