World's Best Memory
When I was eleven years old, my family took a cross-country trip out to the western
United States.
Along the way, we made a stop at a gas station / grocery store off the beaten path
somewhere in Arizona. Out front of the dilapidated store was an old Indian in full
Indian regalia sitting in front of a hand painted sign that read: “Best Memory in the
World. Never forgets a thing.”
Curious, I walked up to the old chief and asked, “If you never forget anything, what
did you eat for breakfast on your eleventh birthday?”
The leathery old Indian stared at me for the longest time before simply
replying, “Eggs”.
By this time my father was calling me back to the car and I left the old Indian chief
somewhat skeptical about his self-acclaimed World’s Best Memory.
Thirty years later, I was re-creating my family’s trip out west with my own wife and
children. As luck would have it, we stopped at the very same gas station and the
old Indian Chief with the same old sign was still sitting out front in his chair.
Excited, I told my children that I had seen this very same Indian years ago when I
was just a kid. I said, “Come on, let’s go talk to the old chief.”
So I walked up to the old Indian Chief with kids in tow, raised my hand and said in
my best Indian voice, “How”.
Without blinking an eye, he responded, “Scrambled.”
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