False Memories

A propos James Frey (with a habit of enhanced memories) and hoaxster Margaret Jones, I give you this anecdote:

Walking home last night, we passed our old apartment. I asked my 5-year-old if she remembered it. She said she remembered that, when we moved (she was 3 ½), she used to wave at the apartment every time we passed. She remembers that she used to miss it more than she does now.

Do you remember what it looked like?

No, but I remember falling down the stairs.

Ah…yes. I remember that, too. A long tumble down the full flight of wooden steps from our unit down into the lobby. She asked if I’d take her into the vestibule and lift her up so she could see those infamous stairs again. I obliged.

“That’s not how I remember them. I remember them wider. They were a lot wider.”

Delighted and fascinated to see that already, at five, things from the past are strangely small upon revisitation, I mumbled something about how that was only to be expected….

“I remember them wider. And MY memories are TRUE.”