When a group of us get together, we allow for times when a memory will not come to a speaker. The usual sign is a head being turned upwards and slightly to the right, the eyes being raised to about 2:30 on the giant invisible clock face with maybe a hand to the chin or side of the face. These motions signal those following the speaker's comments to expect a pause while he tries to recollect the name of that guy who raises collies or whatever. The more agile heads quickly create a usable substitute for the missing name or term: "You know, that guy in the town south of us who is a dog breeder." Since everyone in the group is familiar with recall failure, especially names and nouns, we wait, sometimes patiently, for the name to come to the speaker. At times of high speech traffic, another topic may spring up but we won't be surprised if a minute or five minutes later, the speaker says "Klovsky!". Maybe someone else will say,"Oh, yeah, that Klovsky has good dogs for sale."
Sometimes, younger, more persistent speakers seem more irritated by a "senior moment" and try to keep the group's attention with a series of "you know" 's and coughs and lower level verbalizations hoping their recall mechanisms kick in quickly. A look of fear mixed with frustration may pass across the face signaling the hope that recall failure won't get worse.
