Honest - I was NOT eavsedropping! Yesterday a.m., enjoying my usual Sunday morning Eggsparagus at Be Well Cafe, diligently reading & taking copious notes to improve my spotty project management skills, a fragment of words - literally appearing more type set than auditory - drifted across to me from the cheery quartet of three men & a woman sitting by the front window.
One of the men was talking about how his grandmother, even in her extreme old age with poor eyesight & other challenges, could thread a needle. My head perked up. He was talking about the power of muscle memory, something that always grabs my attention.
Being my usual bold as brass self, I went over to the table & introduced myself. So glad I did! A delightful fifteen minutes followed, kicking off with a high-energy discussion about muscle memory.
Threading the needle reminded me of the old & physically frail friend who had played for her church's services for over fifty years; who would forget how to to play a piece, but remembered by just letting her fingers brush the keys. Muscle memory took over.
For millennia, older people had muscle memory to fall back on when other memories might dim. Things they did with their hands day in & day out, from childhood to elderhood. Darning socks, threading needles, ironing clothes, making furniture or fixing cars. Making strudel. Things done so often the muscles actually retained memory.
I mentioned going, decades ago, to doctrinal class after my church community's weekly Friday Supper, watching all the women pull out sewing or mending to work on as they listened.
Who darns socks anymore or mends underwear? Back in the day, clothing was much more expensive than now, when so much comes in from overseas, where people work for a pittance what American union workers made. It's easier to just replace than to mend. Ditto for furniture & even appliances. As for cars - it's the extremely rare fella who can work on today's computerized automobiles.
And then there's playing the piano or even the kazoo. Back in my day, it seemed that almost every kid took music lessons. I took clarinet, with Mr. Roper. Today, music programs - along with art - are the first to get the axe when a school budget is cut. Mr. Holland's Opus is over 20 years old - things have gotten far worse. Pianos replaced by iPods.
I think of Peggy Sue Got Married & a character's sense memories of her grandmother's strudel, which her grandfather claimed had kept his family together over the decades. In the film's closing scene, she announces the start of family Sunday dinners - and she'll make strudel. Make it - not buy it. A 30 year-old movie with a message that too many of today's younger folks won't recognize. Entemann's strudel - that they recognize. Grandma's? Not so sure.
How many of today's grandmas still bake strudel or even, like my own mother, Double Chocolate Cake for family picnics, Nestle's Chocolate Chip Cookies (from scratch) with her grandkids any time of year? I am sure that if Mom were alive today, she could go through all the gestures involved with making both recipes!
Muscle memory - what impact is it having on our mental development that for the first time EVER our dominant use of our hands is to tip tap on a large or tiny key pad? That we don't take the time & energy to fix things, just replace.
I haven't picked up a clarinet since 7th grade, when I decided it wasn't cool. In Mom's day, every young girl seemed to know at least a little piano.
Back then, bread was kneaded & baked, weekly family dinners were cooked, foot stools were fixed as were lamps & car engines. And, like Peggy Sue's grandma, strudels were lovingly popped out of ovens across the nation. Or coffee cakes, muffins, buttermilk biscuits. And chocolate chip cookies.
Thoughts of muscle memories, the power of muscle memories, triggered by the memories of a twinkling-eyed son proudly telling tales of his own family elders. Smiling still, just remembering those moments!
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