PRESSED BETWEEN THE PAGES
DeAnn (Wolkow) Kruempel
Knowing Them by Heart
I listened, though I did not comprehend all of the long, difficult words. The gravelly growing-up-boy voice continued confidently for a time. Suddenly the voice wavered and stopped. Mom spoke quietly and the speech continued.
The speaker was my brother. Delmer was practicing his oration for his first high school declamation contest. Mom was reading along, ready to prompt. The long speech needed to be memorized.
Our mother was always happy to help with homework or extracurricular activities. She attended country school through eighth grade. Her parents felt that helping on the farm was more important than a high school education for the girls in the family. Mom wanted better for her children.
Mom knew all about memorization. At country school she was required to memorize long pieces. Amazingly, she still remembered them almost 40 years later. Pressed between the pages of her mind were the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, Paul Revere’s ride and Helen Hunt Jackson’s poem, September. A glimpse of sunny yellow goldenrod, or a trip to the apple trees sparked Mother’s memory and she would seamlessly recite the entire poem with a smile.
“Will you teach it to me?” I asked. She would repeat the words until I had at least the first few lines committed to memory. I did ok, but was never as good as Mom. She knew all those lines, verses and speeches “by heart.”
Research reveals that when we train our memories to remember words or numbers, we improve brain networks as well as communication among brain regions. Pushing our brain to retain information helps it grow and adapt. Memorization is like mental calisthenics; it supports cognitive performance as we grow older. Turns out, maybe those old country school teachers knew what they were doing!
These days, it seems we don’t need to memorize much. Even phone numbers are stored by technology. A strange lady’s voice tells us navigation routes. “In one mile, turn left.”
Schedules show up on phones and computers, reminding us of appointments. Trivia, facts and recipes can be accessed with a few finger strokes. Do our brains forget how to remember?
Unfortunately, yes. Without regular recall or mental work, unused neural brain pathways fade like paths in the woods. The brain atrophies.
But there’s a silver lining! We can retrain our brains! We can memorize. A Bible verse, a Psalm, planets in order. Any words you hold dear, memorize them. Better yet, learn them by heart.
September
The golden-rod is yellow; The corn is turning brown; The trees in apple orchards With fruit are bending down.
The gentian’s bluest fringes Are curling in the sun; In dusty pods the milkweed Its hidden silk has spun. The sedges flaunt their harvest, In every meadow nook; And asters by the brook-side Make asters in the brook.
From dewy lanes at morning The grape’s sweet odors rise; At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies. By all these lovely tokens September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather, And autumn’s best of cheer. But none of all this beauty Which floods the earth and air Is unto me the secret Which makes September fair.
It is a thing which I remember; To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September I never can forget.
Kruempel’s ten books are available on Amazon.com
