Don’t forget to practice your ‘healthy habits’

My memory was not that good to start with. I used to specialize in forgetting names. I once sent a bouquet of flowers to a new girlfriend and put the wrong name on the card. She didn’t stay a girlfriend for long.

Walter “The Mind” Griffin was always kept close at hand to get the names right for 30-odd years as a newspaper reporter. (“Hey Walter, who was the guy from South Thomaston that got arrested for female impersonation, then ran for the State House?”)

Now that I am old enough to get both Social Security and a pension, and qualify for Medicare, I can barely remember my memory.

It’s all right to walk around Shaw’s alone and run into people. (“Hey, how ya doin? Good to see ya.”) But if Blue Eyes is there and I speak to someone, she expects to get introduced or at least find out who the person is, after they walk away.

I, of course, have no idea.

Too many times I have opened the refrigerator door and possess no idea what I was looking for. I forget how many times that happened.

It might be getting worse. I forget.

Along comes Marilyn Albert (try to remember that name) of Johns Hopkins University. In the scholarly Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, she tells us that “healthy habits” can check memory loss and the onset of the dreaded disease.

The concept of “healthy habits” reminds me of the stream of e-mails from Blue Eyes, trying to keep me on the straight and narrow.

But some of Albert’s (remember?) tips are not too bad.

I have been a crossword puzzle addict since I started riding the train to work at a Cambridge bakery, at age 14. You tried to do the more difficult Globe puzzle on the train. Then you would buy The Record at South Station and try to finish that easier puzzle on the MTA car before Kendall Square.

Albert says games that require mental manipulation are especially beneficial. I struggle with Sudoku, the number puzzle now published by many papers. But I must confess that I look at the answers, whenever stumped.

Her other suggestions:

Correspond with friends and family through e-mail. Check. Even though I don’t think they read the messages.

Travel someplace new. Check. Well, almost. I do go to Florida every spring , but stay as close as possible to the Red Sox. But I do stay at newer, seedier motels.

Browse the hobby sections of a bookstore. Check. Well, almost. I browse at bookstores but buy the same old crime novels. Forget new hobbies.

Enroll in a course. Hmmm. Best I can do is think about learning French all over again. Maybe with tapes for the car.

Consider part-time work. Wait a minute. I had to work for 30 years to get to this creative indolence. Forget that one.

Volunteer at an agency, which will provide an opportunity to learn new skills. Forget that one, too.

Start a journal to record your thoughts. That’s why I write this column.

Before I forget them.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.