# Do you have childhood memories that you now know as an adult are impossible? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284 "2012-03-09T16:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/1 "2012-03-09T16:05:07Z")
I vividly remember as a kid being in science class. My teacher explained to us that if we went out at 3 or 4 in the morning and looked up at the night sky, we could see the lining of the planets. An event that had not happened in 2000 years. (This part really did happen.) I remember going home that day and asking my mom to wake me up at 3 so I could check this out. She said she would. I also remember being a little more than annoyed when my mom did not follow through with her promise. Luckily though, I managed to wake up on my own at around 3:30. This is where the impossible part comes in: When I went outside to look up at the night sky, the planets weren’t just points of lights in the sky. They were BIG. Big enough to where I could easily see the red spot on Jupiter and the rings around Saturn. Logic dictates that this did not actually happen. But still, the memories of this event, so detailed, seem like they really did happen. So vivid and ingrained in my mind, I remember it happening like it was yesterday. Despite it being some thirty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/2 "2012-03-09T16:10:59Z")
I don’t remember any specific cases like that now, but I might have mistaken such dream memories for reality at one point. I do have impossible astronomy dreams, though. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/3 "2012-03-09T16:13:03Z")
Yep! I remember walking with my Mom; it was Halloween, and she was dressed up as a pregnant lady, with a baby in one arm , \ and me toddling along. (Little did she know she’d end up with four kids, haha; she thought two was too many, and the pregnancy was kind of a white-trash joke !) The weird part, that I have never been able to make part of reality, was that I was carrying a bag of MMs that was AS BIG AS ME. Now, admittedly, I had to have been 2 or 3 at the time, but…I doubt there was ever a bag of MMs the size of a sack of potatoes! It wasn’t a dream, I know that, but don’t know how I know. My mom can confirm the day, I think we even had pictures, and we’d just been at her friend’s house and were going home, but she doesn’t remember MMs. _I_ do! It was just like dragging a HUGE bag of potatoes behind me, except…it was MMs. I swear! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/4 "2012-03-09T16:35:44Z")
I “remember” very clearly being in a crib in the hospital as a newborn. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/5 "2012-03-09T16:36:14Z")
I used to have recurring dreams of flying that were so vivid that for a while I couldn’t be sure they were dreams. ---
**Author:** ![ASanders](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asanders/32/3367_2.png) [@ASanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASanders)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/6 "2012-03-09T16:37:45Z")
I remember going outside my grandmother’s home one snowy morning and finding HUGE footprints of a bare human foot tracking along the lawn. I also have crib memories, but not from the hospital. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/7 "2012-03-09T16:45:51Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Yep! > > I remember walking with my Mom; it was Halloween, and she was dressed up as a pregnant lady, with a baby in one arm , \ and me toddling along. (Little did she know she’d end up with four kids, haha; she thought two was too many, and the pregnancy was kind of a white-trash joke !) > > The weird part, that I have never been able to make part of reality, was that I was carrying a bag of MMs that was AS BIG AS ME. Now, admittedly, I had to have been 2 or 3 at the time, but…I doubt there was ever a bag of MMs the size of a sack of potatoes! It wasn’t a dream, I know that, but don’t know how I know. My mom can confirm the day, I think we even had pictures, and we’d just been at her friend’s house and were going home, but she doesn’t remember MMs. _I_ do! It was just like dragging a HUGE bag of potatoes behind me, except…it was MMs. I swear! [35 lb. bag of M&Ms](http://www.amazon.com/Ms-Plain-Milk-Chocolate-Candy/dp/B000QUZA3Q) Maybe you weren’t imagining it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/8 "2012-03-09T16:50:41Z")
I used to work night security as a student, and I had a dream that on the fifth floor of the administration building (which only has four floors) was a museum with displays of some of the original teaching materials from the mid-1800s, including a large wooden globe. The dream was so vivid that I went one night searching for the stairway until I finally convinced myself that it had been a dream. Had I not gone back, I would tell you today, in complete belief, that the Park Building has five floors, and that there is a museum on the top floor, with very limited access. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/9 "2012-03-09T17:20:30Z")
I remember seeing my stuffed Garfield toy blink its eyes, when I was two years old (I can date it by the house we were living in). Its eyes were wide open before, and half closed after. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/10 "2012-03-09T17:33:06Z")
When I was about six, I dreamed about an impossibly enormous fly landing on the hood of our old 1962 Buick. I was in the Den, looking out the sliding glass doors, watching it as it crawled all over the vehicle. It was a bit bigger than a headlight. My Mom walked into the den and saw it – she commented that she hadn’t seen a fly that big in quite some time. The following morning, I asked her about the fly that we saw – she said that I had dreamed the whole scenario! (I can still see it, plain as day, but I know that it simply can’t be true…) ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/11 "2012-03-09T17:37:46Z")
I also remember occasionally seeing “sky whales” with my friends while we were playing outside. Enormous blue whales cavorting in the clouds. Utterly impossible, of course, but the memories are very clear, just like the headlight-size fly from my previous post. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/12 "2012-03-09T17:42:58Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I vividly remember as a kid being in science class. My teacher explained to us that if we went out at 3 or 4 in the morning and looked up at the night sky, we could see the lining of the planets. I’m trying to imagine what that would look like. Is that like the lining of a coat? ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/13 "2012-03-09T17:43:05Z")
Once when I was about three or four, I ran so fast that my feet lifted a few inches off the ground, allowing me to hover around the house for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/14 "2012-03-09T18:16:34Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [35 lb. bag of M&Ms](http://www.amazon.com/Ms-Plain-Milk-Chocolate-Candy/dp/B000QUZA3Q) > Maybe you weren’t imagining it. 😃 LOL!! :p:p I so have to get that now 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/15 "2012-03-09T18:20:20Z")
This wasn’t as a child, since I didn’t start watching Star Trek:TNG until college, but…I _know_ that the actor who plays Jean Luc Picard is named Patrick Stewart-Kelly. I’ve known it for so long that I’ve searched to see when he changed his name, lol. I’ve SEEN his name just like that in the credits for ST:TNG. All I can think of is that, as I often watched it lying down on the floor \ that I was watching it sideways and somehow conflabulated his name with the name of someone else named “Kelly”. But still. it’s his real name, damnit! ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/16 "2012-03-09T18:22:16Z")
When I was in the single digits, the house across the street went up in flames. I remember very distinctly seeing the shadows of the flames on my bedrooms wall and they were red and orange. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/17 "2012-03-09T18:35:14Z")
For years I thought I watched the Apollo 11 landing, on TV, in the school gym. Since it took place in July I now know that I never saw the Apollo 11 landing live. I’m guessing it was Apollo 12 that we watched, and fuck was I ever bored watching that shitty, grainy black and white coverage! “Yeah big deal. Some guys landing on the moon.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/18 "2012-03-09T18:45:19Z")
I am quite certain now that I was not allowed into the engineer’s booth of the monorail at the New York World’s Fair, and even more certain that I was not allowed to drive the thing. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/19 "2012-03-09T18:46:32Z")
When I was little my cousins and I were visiting our grandparents in Sudbury and sleeping on a pull-out couch. They lived on a high floor in a high-rise building and there was a thunderstorm going on outside. I distinctly saw a bolt of light (not “lightning”, just a beam of light) shoot though the livingroom window, go across the room and light up the kitchen. (Impossible, I know now, and it was probably just one of those “just-falling-asleep” dreams.) I also remember my Grade 2 teacher telling us that earwigs were so named because they could crawl into your ears and eat your brain matter. You’d go though stages of “retardation” as the bug(s) chewed up your brain. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284/20 "2012-03-09T18:49:53Z")
The pain Ciptin! The paiinnnn! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-childhood-memories-that-you-now-know-as-an-adult-are-impossible/615284.md?page=2)