Riding the rails.........with Paulette Goddard

Once, in an attempt to follow a train of thought, I asked my husband how he’d gotten from the subject we had been discussing to the new subject he’d just introduced. He thought about the question for a moment, then explained how the original subject had made him think of something else and that took him to somewhere else and on and on until he’d brought up the new subject. The train of thought made sense even though the beginning and ending seemed as though they had nothing in common.

Every once in a while, we’ll ask one another to describe another train of thought, to ride the rails through the mind’s hairpin curves and fast straight-a-ways to the next station. It’s almost an experiment when we do this now, an examination of the odd links our minds make.

Sometimes you can outline a successful attempt through the maze to recall the name of an actor or actresses not by linking them to the film about which you’re talking, but by making a deliberate series of links through other films or other actors or other whatever until you reach the place where your mind has stored their name. For example, my husband asked me which actress had played the showgirl part in the original version of the film, “The Women.” I like this movie, I have the DVD which I’ve watched many times. I know the names of the principle actresses. On this occasion I could picture the actress, but I could not recall her name. I said, “She was the one who was married to Charlie Chaplin.” Nothing. “She was married to Burgess Meredith.” Nothing. “She was married to that French writer who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front.” Nothing. “Oh, wait, she was in a movie with Bob Hope, The Ghost Breakers,” and then I had it. Paulette Goddard. For reasons unknown to me, my mind hid her behind a Bob Hope movie I’ve only seen once. My mind is a bit twisted.

Maybe this explains why, so often, my train of thought goes off the tracks.