I got comfortable playing and singing in public at a relatively early age, in my late teens, and then let my skills slowly molder through the decades. I would play often enough (every year or two) to bar chord my way along with other players but my finger picking got sketchy and my "songbook" got pretty thin. Been playing more regularly this year and the guitar skills came back quickly but I have found that learning new songs is a challenge, particularly the lyrics. I now practice those while walking the dog, something about walking and singing softly seems to install the words more firmly in permanent memory;)