A–> B–> C–> D–> … X–> Y–> Z

Don’t worry about it too much, but this frenetic summer, we will all forget peoples’ names … again.  This will mainly happen if your age clock has ticked past 75 … though the anxiety of placing names to faces can [and does] bedevil us all, and at any age.

Forgetting names — even the names of those you know well — can be both embarrassing and stressful.  But take heart … it’s OK.  It afflicts us all, commonly when we are relaxed and, dare I say it, is aggravated when we are a mite mellow.

A near-to-full life-long memory drive, a lengthening ‘sort-time’, the lack of an evolutionary external hard drive [a serious design fault from the ‘divine watchmaker’], and the sepia shading that mists our later years … all impact our mechanisms for rapid, on-the-spot recall.

Uh-oh … here comes — Blank!

What are their names? … Blank!

Damn it, I know them so well! … Blank!

And so, while trying to sustain a relaxed “of-course-I-know-who-you-are” conversation with two smiling, friendly people you haven’t seen since last summer, you feverishly delve into the neural tangles of the Filofax that inhabits your left temporal lobe and start with “A”…

Alistair, Andrew, Angus, Anthony … Abigail, Amelia, Angela, Astrid … on through all 26 letters [even “Q”, “X”, and “Z”] … and still the name doesn’t come!

Click, click, click goes the Filofax as “A” gives way to “B” and “C”, then on past the usually-reliable “J” and “M” to “P”… but still nothing.

Near panic sets in when, arriving at “R”, “S”, and “T”, they fail, too.  Meanwhile, as the conversation fades to a background hum, the frantic memory-search supervenes all.

Later, at home, when tilling the tomato patch, emptying the dishwasher, or feeding the dog, the light bulb of lost recall blinks on!

Fred and Freya!

Of course, it was Fred and Freya!  How could I ever have forgotten them? … at least, that is, till tomorrow when the whole charade will likely start again.

By the time we reach our 70s, our cerebral hard drives have been under the combined assault of volume and storage for nearly eight decades.  As more of us live into our 80s, the creeping fear that ‘losing it’ will hitch a free ride likely nags at us all.  As we age, the “D” word can loom into view — in the distance at first, but always there — dusting the horizon like a Lorne sea mist hovers over Bass Strait — watching and waiting the right moment to roll in and obscure.  Nothing prods that fear like anomic aphasia [anomia] — the formal name for the condition where the brain forgets names.

To be frank, it rarely is the dreaded ‘D’.  Rather, as the gentle mists of life in retirement replace the incisive, immediate, click-click mentality demanded by a working lifetime in business, a career, or a profession, our brains gratefully slip back to relax and rest in a lower gear.

Retirement rocks!  The need to be constantly ‘on’ can be joyfully shrugged off at the edge of the bowls green, left on the putting greens at the Country Club, lulled by the comfort of a winter glass at the A-team, or salved by the peaceful solitude of a sausage sizzle deep in the forest by a frog pond.

If the worst moment of the day is an errant bowl into the gutter, a missed putt, or a ten-minute ‘kip’ to the mesmerising sound of croaking frogs, you have genuinely embraced life in the slow[er] lane.  Be grateful as your mental foot slips off the accelerator and your relaxing brain gratefully sheds its need for urgency.  If a failure to recall a name is your greatest worry, you have nothing to worry about.  You are in a very populous club!

Summer, when the weather is balmy and the evenings long, becomes Lorne’s annual ‘reconnect time’… but it is a six-week memory test for faces-seldom-seen.  If, like me, you have a lifetime’ fail’ in the link-a-face-to-a-name game [some play that game well, but I do not], summer can herald a difficult time.

Forgetting someone’s name can be both embarrassing and aggravating, frequently leading to the ‘tip of the tongue syndrome’.

There is only one answer: shamelessly, blatantly confess your recall incompetence, then self-[re]introduce.

Use only a Christian name — one name is enough.  While it can be devilishly difficult to do … especially when it is to someone you know well … think of this: it may well be quietly appreciated, given that he or she may also be struggling to recall your name!  Step confidently forward, take a breath, and go for it:

‘Hullo, my name is XXXX, and although I fear that I know you well, my memory for names is fast failing me …’

Allow a hint of expectancy to hang in the air to hopefully encourage their rejoinder:

‘Oh, yes, XXXX, and as I was struggling too, my thanks — Oh, and by the way, we are Fred and Freya’!

Many studies have examined the reasons behind the mental block to name recall that is so common in us all.  An explanatory from Colby College, Maine [ https://tinyurl.com/2rmcfcj9 ] states: “… if you recognise the face but cannot recall the name, you are not alone; it is a common everyday experience.  It is a common form of paramnesia [a disorder of memory] that often occurs when we see the person outside or away from their usual context”.

To remember a face is a matter of recognition.  To remember a name is a matter of recall.  The brain has a two-tier memory system that differentiates between familiarity and recall.  Oddly, as names are usually unique to individuals, they are less easily recalled than their occupation or place of residence might be.  A thing of wonder, the brain!

So … when that oh-so-familiar face appears at the A-team, hails you with the wave of a long-lost-friend, then starts to hip and shoulder a path towards you, don’t panic.

Take a big breath and prepare to re-introduce:

‘Hullo, my name is XXXX … and I am terribly sorry, but your name has just slipped out of my left frontotemporal lobe, so can you help me?’

John Agar

Feature Writer

 

A word from the chairman

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable New Year and got a chance to see our amazing fireworks display. (If you didn’t you can’t blame me as, due to copy deadlines, I am writing this on December 18th, but I am confident all will be well).

The SMART goals we set for the Committee for Lorne for 2024 (and my score for our achievement) included:

• Making some meaningful progress on addressing the issue of affordable housing for key workers in Lorne.

While we have explored a number of options, we have come to the conclusion that this is not a problem that we as a community organisation can resolve.  It requires the involvement of government at all levels in the areas of planning, legislation and funding.  We will continue to work with Surf Coast Shire and other government agencies in 2025 to develop solutions.  There is no simple, quick fix; it requires a long-term co-ordinated strategy.

Score 6/10 

• The restart of the Point Grey precinct redevelopment.

The Community Reference Group (CRG) met together with GORCAPA several times during 2024, but we continue to be frustrated by the slow progress.  While we expected to work with GORCAPA and the newly appointed design consultant to reshape the plans that were agreed on before the 2022 VCAT decision, we have been bogged down in the development of a Coastal Adaptation Plan to address the impact of potential future sea level rises and erosion on the precinct site.  We are now hopeful of seeing some plans and some meaningful progress in 2025.

Score 3/10

• A new plan for the pool and foreshore precinct.

While we understand that a new lease is being negotiated with the current tenant we are not aware of any details of the proposed lease or conditions, nor are we aware of any plans for the trampoline and mini-golf areas.  We understand the pool and gym are open and operating, but with limited hours (Why?).

Score 0/10

• Strong representation of the Lorne community with Surf Coast Shire (SCS), GORCAPA and other government agencies to ensure that we are well represented and adequately resourced.

With the election of Leon Walker to SCS council, we have a voice at that table.  We also have regular contact with councillors and council officers.  We have contact with GORCAPA through the CRG and otherwise as needed.

Score 8/10

Not a great scorecard, but we will persist in 2025.

*****

Things have certainly been happening at the Lorne Country Club under the guidance of President Ian Stewart and his hardworking committee.  Works are well underway with the speedy implementation of the LCC Master Plan.  Already some of the major earthworks and course redesign are completed or in progress.  Another exciting innovation is the introduction of motorised carts, a blessing for the less mobile on our “undulating” course.  Check out all the details for golf and tennis bookings on the LCC website and remember bookings are essential in January.

Enjoy your January, stay safe and don’t forget to be bushfire and water-safety aware.

Cheers

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

January

10 – Mountain to Surf Run, 8:30am – 12pm at Lorne

10 – Tony Wolfenden Kite Exhibition Opening Night, 5-7pm at Lorne Community Connect

11 – Pier to Pub Swim, from 11am at Lorne

17-19 – Deans Marsh Sheep Dog Trials, at Deans Marsh Reserve

25 – Lorne Market, 9-3pm www.lornemarkets.com/

 

February

21 – 2025 Photographic Prize – Routine and Ritual Competition, closes 21 Feb 2025. Shortlist announced 10 Mar 25. Info: lornecommunityconnect.com.au