Are memory lapses first sign of aging?

I walked into a drugstore this week to purchase two small items. That much I remember. As I walked into the store, an employee greeted me with a "welcome" and a smile. I returned the favor. And then I forgot the two items I needed. I just plain could not remember why I had come into this particular store.

So I slowly walked each aisle, hoping that I'd spot what I needed and that would jog my memory. It didn't work. I fumed and fussed about my lagging memory and then I finally slipped out of the store empty-handed and slightly embarrassed.

Now that incident by itself would not have mattered much. But earlier in the week I stood in a funeral home and tried to recall the last name of a longtime friend. There I stood, staring at a person I have known for 15 years or so and I was absolutely blank on a last name. I was fairly certain that the person's name began in a specific letter of the alphabet and so when I returned home,

I took a phone directory and went through that letter. Sure enough, there it was.

But both of those isolated incidents got my attention. Did I simply have a "senior moment", as my mother says? I take some level of pride in my memory but here were two examples where my mind failed me miserably.

When I mentioned these embarrassing moments to an older friend, he just laughed and said be prepared for many more to come. I shared the story with my sister who related similar episodes in her life. So at least I'm not alone.

I am most certainly not trying to be old before my time but I wondered if these brief lapses in memory are among the first signs of aging? The inability to do some physical activities that I could once do is a sign that you're getting older. But slips in the memory signals something much more concerning.

I can accept the fact that I cannot run as fast as I did long ago. But I cannot accept the fact that I have forgotten your name.

So heeding the advice of my parents, I have become a list-maker. No more going to the store for a handful of items without a list. That will save a return visit to the store to fetch what I forgot the first time. But then again I talked with yet another friend who said she indeed was reduced to making lists but unfortunately has begun forgetting where she put the list.

In other words, I have seen the future and it isn't pretty.

Yet there is hope. A newspaper co-worker said it wasn't age that's the problem but rather our lifestyle. In our hurried world, we're all guilty of trying to shove too much in too little time. And with all of that information swirling around in our brains, surely something is bound to get lost. I like that explanation much more than the early signs of dementia.

Experts are quick to label the entry into middle age but more reluctant to tell you when you've crossed the border into old age. We all define that differently.

Maybe and hopefully my "senior moments" this week were just random pauses in my brain. But something's wrong when you can remember details from an incident 40 years ago but can't recall what you had for breakfast yesterday. Or did I have breakfast yesterday?

Sorry but I just can't remember.