Just realized I spent years trying to find a photo that wasn't even mine

My strongest memory is a picture of me holding a blue balloon at my third birthday, but I could never find it in our albums. I asked my mom about it for over a decade, thinking it was lost. Turns out, it was a photo from a storybook my grandma read to me, and my brain made it real. Has anyone else had a core memory that was actually from a story or a dream?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_elliot2mo ago

Wow, that's wild. My buddy swore he remembered getting a red bike for Christmas when he was six, even described the tassels on the handlebars. He brought it up for years until his mom finally showed him a home video from that day, and he actually got a sled. He was totally mixing it up with a commercial he saw all the time. Brains are so weird like that.

luna_wright2mo ago

Totally get that, @the_elliot... I once swore I met a famous actor at a cafe, but it was just a guy who looked like him in a movie poster I walked past.

paige3312mo ago

My uncle has a super vivid memory of a blue car crash from his childhood, but the police report says it was a white truck.

karen3612d ago

Oh my, that reminds me of the time I argued with my sister about a purple couch that never existed.