When you put two people over the age of 50 in the same room, their conversation will likely turn to their diminished capacities for remembering things. Phrases like "senior moment" and "brain freeze" will pepper their talk, and they will share tricks they use to keep up in a fast-paced society where memory is key.

The 50-somethings will talk of how they maintain lists by their bedsides and leave messages on their home and work phones to remind themselves of what they want to do when they get there.

One might tell of how, if she sees a phone number she wants to remember while driving a car, she will ask her passengers to remember different parts of the number, until someone finds a pencil and paper to write it down.

Surrounded mostly by people over the age of 50, I've overheard many of these conversations and participated in a number of them myself.

Recently, I found myself commiserating with several women about our fading memories, of the panic you feel when you meet a longtime acquaintance and your mind goes blank as you try to recall her name, of the notes you find in your purse, the words without meaning even though the handwriting is your own.

One woman told of how she recently called her doctor's office and mistakenly left a neighbor's phone number on his answering machine instead of her own.

"I've had the same telephone number for almost 20 years; you'd think I'd be able to remember my own number," she lamented.

Ever resourceful as women are, though, she looked her home number up on her cell phone and called the doctor back.

With the mention of cell phones, our conversation turned to the challenges we over-50-year-olds face trying to keep up with the latest technological wonders that our children seem to thrive on. It's an uphill battle, we agreed, one that isn't going to go away.

After spending years trying to figure out how to use a VCR, we wondered if we'd ever master a DVD. And even though we all use computers and can surf the Internet with ease, we still think of Blackberries as fruit and Blogs as something a baby might say.

As for cell phones, we still rely on our children to show us how to use them.

It was at this point in the conversation that I told my friends how my husband dealt with the challenges presented by cell phone ownership. With the help of our son, my husband programmed his mailbox with the following message: "Hi, this is Steve. Please don't leave a message because I don't know how to get them."

They laughed aloud and agreed that his candid solution has merit. Maybe it will start a Movement.