FIFO

I won’t keep you guessing. FIFO stands for First In, First Out and is the opposite of LIFO which stands for Last In, First Out. Both are common accounting methods for determining values of business inventories. For some time I have been desperately trying to change the accumulations in my mind to the FIFO method. I’d love to get the old things out and replace them with new things. It isn’t working.
Some illustrations: My first ever phone number was Keystone (later 53) 8-6284. I still remember from my caddying days to caution golfers about the snakes in the woods along the par 3 ninth hole. The Diamond K Insurance Agency still has its own little trove in my mind along with the proper way to pot an electrical cannon plug on a Convair fighter jet. 3504 West Tuscaraurus Avenue was the address of our restaurant in Canton, Ohio. Then there is the (303) 292-3070 phone number of my office at 5100 Race Court in Denver from ages ago.
If that isn’t bad enough, I still have a lot of consumer idiosyncrasies stored from our 30 years in the consumer impulse business. I know that you about six times more apt to purchase Vanilla flavored Little Tree air fresheners than you are the Green Apple ones. I also know that you’ll probably settle for aviator-shaped sunglasses and that there is about a one in five chance that your logo preference is Harley Davidson. If you’re from my generation and you have to buy a small toy for a girl at Christmas it will be either jacks or a jump rope or both. That is in spite of the fact that few suburban young lasses are drawn to them, especially in the winter months.
I won’t continue with what to you are meaningless trivial ramblings. Actually, everything I listed above has little value to me either and my chances of needing any of those things in the future are almost nil. I have heard it said that my mind has limitless storage capacities. I guess I’ll have to accept that. I can’t help but feel that those useless facts are marginalizing and limiting my ability to accurately reflect all that happened last week. Last night, I drew a blank when my son asked me what I was doing in the upcoming week. At minimum, I think my brain works on the Last In, First Out principle.
There is another factor though. I am desperately trying to remember Scott, Glenn and Ellen, and other new friends from two weeks ago. You see people have become so very important to me. I am almost embarrassed to realize how important information and “things” were to me over the years. Perhaps that’s why I remember so much stuff from the past. I think my brain has possibly obediently retained what I told it was important to me at the time. I think as I get older I am, at least subconsciously, realizing just how distorted some of my priorities actually were. As I become increasingly more relationship oriented, I’d like you my friend to know the important place I’ve reserved in my mind and heart for you. I know I won’t regret it like some of the trivia above.