Donnie said, "I suppose it is just another step in the relentless decline, but when the brain gets stuck, it can be frightening. I awoke at 5:30, and as usual could not get back to sleep.
In the hour before dawn, all one can do is let the mind wander. Somehow, I wandered into horror films, and suddenly found I could not remember the name of the first film Dracula, whose face and voice are immortal icons, even to younger generations. You know immediately whom I am talking about--but for at least 10 minutes, and what seemed like deathless eternity, I could not remember his name.
You'll remember that I was a big horror fan as a kid, and the Dracula actor has always been as familiar to me as Frankenstein/Karloff or Barney Fife/Don Knotts, or Moe, Larry, and Shemp, or countless other memorable figures in our lives. But now I could not remember Count Dracula's real name. My mind ran around it time and again, thinking of scenes from his many films, remembering other actors in them, picturing billboards, Dracula toys in his image, etc., etc. Nothing worked--my brain was stuck, pinned down by a wooden stake of forgetfulness. I got nervous, scared--what and who will I forget next?
Eventually the named popped into my head; I can't recall the successful association, how the synapses were made to connect. But it all made for an appropriately horror-filled moment.
I copy our neuro-tech, dementia expert on this (though I forget her name): Am I lost?"
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