I’ve had a few, usually of the type: "I’m sure I gave you that already… oh wait… here it is in my purse.
One of the biggest is that I recalled having broken my leg playing on a swing in the backyard when I was about five.
Only it never happened! I had mentioned it to my mother and she said no, my sister had been on the swing and jumped and knocked me down, but broken her leg. The family album proved it.
On ethat I am aware of. I remember learning to tie my shoes in a laundromat I can very clearly picture the scene, I was sitting up on one of the folding tables, practising tying them after my mom showed me how.
Only it was actually my older sister who learned to tie her shoes that day, while sitting on that table, not me. Very weird.
I really do not know. As I have no contact with my family (nor do I wish any) I cannot speak for childhood memories, and the OP after that begs the question for me: Given no independent (and multiple) verification, how do I know if a memory is false or not? I cannot rely on the memories of others either - theirs may be false as well. In fact, all of the memories about any given incident may be incorrect.
I have a memory of walking around the back yard and stepping on a large chuck of broken glass. The bottom of my foot was cut pretty bad, and I remember my mother cleaning the wound in the kitchen sink. But my mother says it never happened. And there is no scar on the bottom of either of my feet.
If you tell the same made up story over and over again…
you will start to believe it and forget you made it up…
I have had the most interesting life I tell you…
I woke up last night and asked my husband if I had a part-time job at a furniture store.
He just gave me the most puzzled look.
Oh. And I don’t have a part-time job. Which is good, since I never show up for it.
When I was a kid I had the memory of going to a drive-in movie theatre and seeing a particular movie(back then I even knew the name of the movie) but my parents later told me it never happened and indeed there is not now and never has been a drive-in within 40 miles of where we lived back then.
I have no idea where I got the idea in the first place.
I think everyone’s had some false, or at least altered, memories. I have a very good one and I realize that memories are pretty inaccurate at times. I can see myself in most of my memories from my childhood. I know the events took place (when they’re events and not images), but the way I see them is clearly altered.
I have a bad habit of appropriating my best friend/roomate’s memories. We’ve been friends since we were 15, and have lived together for about seven years. We’ve done so much together than time blurs the line between what I did and what she did.
I get made fun of for this alot. hehe.
Well, for years I remembered that the winning pitcher of the first major league baseball game I attended was Roland Sheldon. Turned out, it was Bill Stafford.
Of course, the losing pitcher of this game is better known for losing it (though he pitched well – only giving up one run), than the winner is for winning it.
True baseball fans should be able to guess what game I mean. 
My sister and I have wildly differing memories of our childhood. She insists she remembers things (principally unpleasant behavior by our father) that I simply do not remember happening.
In this case, I suspect a lot of her memories were created to justify her hostility about him – because she tells me things that would have happened when I was there, and I’m just drawing a complete blank.
Of course, there’s an entire year of my childhood that’s a TOTAL blank in my memory, so perhaps there IS something to her claims!
This is pretty minor, but one time I remembered a car in a movie as being blue when it was really white.
My friend was telling someone about a scene in a movie and he said something like “and then the white car drove off.” I interrupted him to say it was a blue car and I was quite insistent since I was sure it was blue. Later on I ended up seeing the movie again and sure enough, the car was white. Go figure.
Once when I was a kid (six or seven) my Dad and I got locked out of his aunt’s house when we were visiting her and had to wander around for six hours in 105 degree heat until she got home. I have a couple memories of this day which are probably accurate, but I have another reasonably clear picture in my head of my dad and I standing on a playground. However, the image I have of us is as seen from maybe 60 feet away, even though I’m the one seeing it, so it’s obviously false.
My mother is notorious for believing she has told my Dad or I something when she’s never said it and then getting upset when we fail to heed.
–Cliffy
I remeber being happy once.
I’m pretty sure that implanted there by the aliens.
I remeber being taught that the real way to spell ‘remember’ is ‘remeber’.
I had what I now believe was a false memory, that effected me for some time.
On a holiday when I was about 5 or 6 and my brother was 15 or 16 my family had a holiday in Cornwall, and on that holiday we did quite a few cliff walks which were for me quite scary. All that was true.
Now I have a memory of on one such walk being especially scared of the cliff and complaining about it (also probably true). I remember myself being at the back, then my Brother, with my Mum and Dad at the front. I remember my brother becoming annoyed by my complaining and lifting me up held me over the cliff edge and threatened me if I didn’t stop complaining. My parents didn’t see because they were both in front of my Brother and me. (This is what I now believe was a false memory)
Needless to say, that effected my view of my Brother for a long time, and made it very difficult for me to like him.
I now believe this was a false memory because, as an adult I know more about my Mum and Dad and am sure they would have never have allowed a child (me) to be at the back when walking along a cliff path. They are far too protective of my Brothers children for me to believe that was possible. So my parents could not have been in front of my Brother and me, and so the event I now believe could not have happened.
I wonder if what I remembered for so long was in fact from a nightmare, or a hallucination brought on by being so scared of the cliff edge when walking the cliff paths.
Cheers, Bippy
Something kinda similar happened to me today.
I was talking to my boyfriend and I said "I had this weird dream that a bunch of us were walking in the street, and whenever a car came by, we all got on the curb. Then we’d all walk back into the street and someone would say “Game On!”
He kinda gave me a funny look and said “Um, that happened yesterday. Remember?”
I didn’t really even remember that it really happened! Yesterday was like a dream to me.
I have a distinct memory of watching my mom and dad play pool together when I was around three or four. Problem is that I know we did not have a pool table in our house until I was eight.
I assume that I actually saw something a bit more ''private" and my brain changed my memory to protect me. If I analyze this any further, I’m afraid I will never stop throwing up. :eek:
Yup, I have. It was when I was about, oh, 9 or so.
There were these toys that I wanted, very small, pretty neat-looking; I can’t remember anything else about them. One night I dreamt that I went to the store with Mom and stole them by taking the package, opening it, and hiding the toys in this little fannypack I had at the time. When I got home, I hid the toys in my pencil box for school.
I woke up convinced it had happened, and I never could find that pencil box. I believed for years that I had stolen these toys from the store and somehow hidden them away. Then I found the box, saw no toys, and realized I hadn’t.