The memory process is wonderful!

As we get older we forget what happened yesterday, and 30 and 40-year-old events and memories get clearer. Why do I remember the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers more lucidly than my present car's license plate and my doctor and dentist appointments?

As a sexagenarian (sounds illicit), funny things keep popping into my head and onto my tongue. More and more I find myself speaking and using Yiddish in my everyday speech. I catch myself only after the Yiddishisms have been blurted out of my mouth. I surprise myself! Did I say that? Yes, Stanley, you did. Wow!

Recently, when discussing today's parental methods of child-rearing with two sexagenarians (there's that naughty term again), I found myself quoting my wonderful, dear, departed mother.

These three sayings should be repeated in Yiddish, as my mother spoke them, but I will translate them into English for my readership.

Number 1: One mother can take care of 10 children (kinder) but 10 children can't take care of one mother!

Simple, but powerful!

Number 2: I only pray to God that I should never need anything from my children!

A cry for independence!

Number 3: I waited much longer for you!

This saying was used when we rushed my mother and she dawdled a bit. She invoked the nine-month gestation period and we slowed down a little.

These old sayings bring back thoughts of my youth and my parents. They have their own life and I have no control over them. I do love them.

If you, my reader, have any old sayings, adages, axioms or proverbs you would like to share, please mail them to me. They can be in any language, but should be translated into English.

Please share them. They will be beneficial to us all.

Stan Greenberg is seeking your responses. Letters to Stan can be mailed to:

Stanley Greenberg

c/o Syosset-Jericho Tribune

132 East Second Street

Mineola, NY 11501.

Responses to this column may be reprinted and edited for clarification. Letters must arrive by Friday, April 30.