Pop Smear

Okay, this part really happened: I was playing in my front yard and got attacked by a stray cat. It was orange. The animal control people tested the cat for diseases, and they had to test me for rabies while they waited for the results to come in.

But--I remember the nurse taking out a red Popsicle and rubbing it all over my arm. She told me it would feel like fire ants. And my mom just watched.

Looking back, I bet the Popsicle was some medical thing. Or maybe she gave me a Popsicle afterwards. But I remember being rubbed by a red Popsicle. And my mom says that never happened.

-Cole F.
Los Angeles, CA

Captain Hook is my Homeboy

When I was in preschool I had several imaginary friends, but I only clearly recall "seeing" one of them. I remember getting out of my mom's van on a sunny morning and entering the main hall on the way to the temple's preschool, and I saw that Captain Hook (from the Disney version of "Peter Pan") was standing there waiting for me. He was the size of a real man-- or at least the size that a "real man" would be in a pre-schooler's estimation--but he was 2D and technicolor, sort of the way the cartoons looked in the "real world" in the Roger Rabbit movie. It's ironic that a villain would be my bosom buddy, because I was afraid of almost everything when I was a kid--but on the other hand, I think I've always loved outsiders, and villains are usually misunderstood. I also had a fake plastic hook from a family trip to Disneyland, so maybe that's where the fantasy/memory started.

-Apple B.
Los Angeles, CA

Gumballs of Fire

This memory is a compilation of several memories that took place at different times, and I guess it's part made up too, but I swear I remember it happening.

I was about 6 years old. The house behind our house was burning down. My brother met the firefighters that were working on getting the fire under control, and they gave him an antique gumball machine, and my brother and I played with it.

Later, my brother claimed that the gumball machine had nothing to do with the firefighters. We had gotten it from an antique store at a totally different time. I guess I basically made up a story about where the gumball machine came from.

-Amy T.
Los Angeles, CA

Hey-O, Jackie O!

This is a cartoon we saw at the This American Life broadcast. It's a funny story about a husband's false memory of an event that really happened to his wife.

Grounded on Parade Day

I have this memory from when I was 3 or 4 years old of being told by my parents that I'm grounded (I don't know why). I am sitting in the window seat that looks out onto the street, and suddenly I see my best friend (at the time), Julianne, leading a parade of kids down the street. The kids are dressed in colorful robes, like wizards or fairies, and they are trailing up and down the street, singing and calling for me, but I can't go outside.

My parents don't remember this, and claim that they never grounded me. But for years I was convinced that it really happened.

-Elysse A.
Los Angeles, CA

Remember Me This

This blog is going to be dedicated to memories of events that never existed, or events that might have existed, but only one person actually remembers and therefore everybody else calls that person crazy. If you have a funny or poignant memory that you shared with a person who was supposedly there, only to find out that it never happened, email it to us and we will post it.