The Mandela Effect: False Memory

Over on Mumsnet at the moment there is what I consider a fascinating thread on False Memory. A poster whose daughter remembers being smacked and crying when, as OP asserts, this could not have been the case. She has asked her daughter more about the events leading to the 'smacking', and it's all very interesting. There's a lot of 'oh, she's obviously telling the truth, you must have smacked her and forgotten about it', but when the OP actually asks the daughter where and when this happened, it becomes obvious that the daughter (who is now adult) has created the memories...
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5064072-fake-memories?page=1
 
Sadly, while it's right to consider a child's account of being abused, it must also be remembered that children can lie especially when they have no idea of the consequences.
 
Stormkhan said:
Sadly, while it's right to consider a child's account of being abused, it must also be remembered that children can lie especially when they have no idea of the consequences.
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This isn't a child. The girl is 23.
 
Ah. I get you.
I cannot recall a time when my mum smacked me. Ever.
However, I admit I suspect it might've happened at some time - it would be in character for the time and situation - but I'd never be able to remember it happening.
 
She could be remembering a vivid dream. As children we have blurred lines between reality and fantasy. Also what can be seen as a minor incident by an adult can be perceived entirely differently by a child.

I remember as a child, my mom crying because we weren't going to church and me standing in front of her and she sitting on a rocking chair in the kitchen. She was holding my brother.

Only a couple of years ago (maybe 10) I told her of my memory (minus the crying). She confirmed that everyone was ready for church and my brother got dirty, clothing I think. She made a comment about having to change his clothes because he couldn't go dirty. My dad then said that if he couldn't go dirty, then we wouldn't go at all.

I do know that just seeing my mom crying did not make me feel good even though I didn't understand the situation. I would have only been about 3 as I don't remember my middle sister being there.
 
Stormkhan said:
Ah. I get you.
I cannot recall a time when my mum smacked me. Ever.
However, I admit I suspect it might've happened at some time - it would be in character for the time and situation - but I'd never be able to remember it happening.
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Yardstick and paint stick were my mom's choices of punishment. If it came to my dad needing to intervene it was a leather shaving strop or belt.
 
Peripart said:
I try not to let it annoy me(!), but some common misuses of English do grind my gears somewhat.

TV presenters who say "I" instead of "me", just to try and sound more educated, are a prime example. "You're going to need to cook up something special to impress Gregg and I". Like fingernails down a blackboard...

I've noticed recently a tendency for people to say "honing in" when they mean "homing in". Is that language slippage, or just a mishearing?
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Even worse these days it’s so often myself and …
 
I have an odd one. I’ve already mentioned the Dartford bridge sign changing on me. Here’s another there’s a junction a short while away in Stone and I swear there used to be a lovely Art Deco building that you could see at this junction. I remember it not too long ago and definitely since I learnt to drive in 2011. But when I look it up on street view you can see new builds being built in that location in 2008. Ive checked it’s not behind. I’ve looked it up on the local planning portal but the road the new builds are on doesn’t come up and the main road doesn’t mention an old building going or the new ones being built. But I swear I’ve seen the Art Deco building after 2008.
IMG_5446.png
 
MorningAngel said:
I have an odd one. I’ve already mentioned the Dartford bridge sign changing on me. Here’s another there’s a junction a short while away in Stone and I swear there used to be a lovely Art Deco building that you could see at this junction. I remember it not too long ago and definitely since I learnt to drive in 2011. But when I look it up on street view you can see new builds being built in that location in 2008. Ive checked it’s not behind. I’ve looked it up on the local planning portal but the road the new builds are on doesn’t come up and the main road doesn’t mention an old building going or the new ones being built. But I swear I’ve seen the Art Deco building after 2008.View attachment 77093
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Have you looked at old maps just to check what was there before?
If you name the street junction I can have a look.
 
brownmane said:
She could be remembering a vivid dream. As children we have blurred lines between reality and fantasy. Also what can be seen as a minor incident by an adult can be perceived entirely differently by a child.

I remember as a child, my mom crying because we weren't going to church and me standing in front of her and she sitting on a rocking chair in the kitchen. She was holding my brother.

Only a couple of years ago (maybe 10) I told her of my memory (minus the crying). She confirmed that everyone was ready for church and my brother got dirty, clothing I think. She made a comment about having to change his clothes because he couldn't go dirty. My dad then said that if he couldn't go dirty, then we wouldn't go at all.

I do know that just seeing my mom crying did not make me feel good even though I didn't understand the situation. I would have only been about 3 as I don't remember my middle sister being there.
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I have a memory of my mum crying - she'd bumped her head. Now, my mum was not the sort to cry about bumping her head, so I think it's far more likely that she said it brought tears to her eyes, and my brain and memory have changed it into her crying.
 
MorningAngel said:
I haven’t looked. It’s London Road, Stone, Greenhithe with the junction of Hedge Place Road and Stone place Road.
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There was a couple of buildings there in the art deco era, but the first map is titled 1948-1973 and it is empty.

spr2.png


spr1.png
 
MorningAngel said:
I have an odd one. I’ve already mentioned the Dartford bridge sign changing on me. Here’s another there’s a junction a short while away in Stone and I swear there used to be a lovely Art Deco building that you could see at this junction. I remember it not too long ago and definitely since I learnt to drive in 2011. But when I look it up on street view you can see new builds being built in that location in 2008. Ive checked it’s not behind. I’ve looked it up on the local planning portal but the road the new builds are on doesn’t come up and the main road doesn’t mention an old building going or the new ones being built. But I swear I’ve seen the Art Deco building after 2008.View attachment 77093
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Right.

Apparently, the above mentioned TA Barracks was pulled down in 2004 as it had been vandalised beyond repair.

This building was built in the 1930s (right era).

Could that have been the one you remember and you have just got your years mixed up?

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/548215.centre-plans-look-to-be-set-in-stone/
 
Floyd said:
Right.

Apparently, the above mentioned TA Barracks was pulled down in 2004 as it had been vandalised beyond repair.

This building was built in the 1930s (right era).

Could that have been the one you remember and you have just got your years mixed up?

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/548215.centre-plans-look-to-be-set-in-stone/
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Yes but I’m sure I’m not remembering that far back. That’s twenty years! And I could have sworn it was when I was driving up that road.
 
It’s very odd. That’s the way I drive for Bluewater but as I’ve said I only passed my test in 2011 we don’t generally pass other than that. So either I’m thinking A LOT further back than I thought (I was thinking five years max) or it was a time slip or a glimpse to a parallel universe where it was still there then.
 
MorningAngel said:
It’s very odd. That’s the way I drive for Bluewater but as I’ve said I only passed my test in 2011 we don’t generally pass other than that. So either I’m thinking A LOT further back than I thought (I was thinking five years max) or it was a time slip or a glimpse to a parallel universe where it was still there then.
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Could you have been a passenger in another car?
 
MorningAngel said:
I have an odd one. I’ve already mentioned the Dartford bridge sign changing on me.
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What does seem odd is that the photo of Her Maj opening the bridge and the siting of the monument today, do seem in different places.
The road appears to curve much more to the right in the photo with the Queen;


dc1.png


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That does look like where I’ve always seen it. But I remember it saying July 1991 as do some other people. But as you can see it doesn’t and I’m sure when I looked it up it opened in October or something.

Edit: As to the road curve, it looks like it’s been changed at some point.
 

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Stormkhan said:
RE: "My husband and I ..." misuse.
In my opinion, it boils down to it being used as a famous opening to the Queens Speech ages ago. People assume that was the correct usage; after all, the Queen didn't say "My husband and me ..." Absolutely correct, she wouldn't. However, if she'd said "It occurred to my husband and me that ..." this would be correct too.
So, erroneously, folks say 'My husband and I' when they really mean 'my husband and me'.
Isn't it the difference between a collective subject and a collective object?
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The best way I've found to work it out is to take the other person out of the sentence and see if I or me makes sense.

E.g. "my husband and I went to ASDA" makes sense as "I went to ASDA", not "me went to ASDA". (At any rate, I'm a Sainsbury's girl.)
 
MorningAngel said:
Edit: As to the road curve, it looks like it’s been changed at some point.
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I wondered that, but comparing the two maps, it seems to be in the same place.
Also the right hand curve is actually the start of the bridge so the wouldn't have altered that.
Very odd.
Must just be the camera angle.
 
MorningAngel said:
That does look like where I’ve always seen it. But I remember it saying July 1991 as do some other people. But as you can see it doesn’t and I’m sure when I looked it up it opened in October or something.

Edit: As to the road curve, it looks like it’s been changed at some point.
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Compare the photo with the Queen to this one.
The road looks much straighter now;

db.png
 
MorningAngel said:
Have a look on street view through the different years it does look like it gets straighter over the years. I suspect they’ve tweaked the road.
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Speaking as someone who lives in a place where roads have quite a lot of unexpected bends - that's very wise.

Locally, the top of Wrelton Cliff was notoriously an accident blackspot. A small jink in the road - and it really was quite small - meant that a momentary inattention on the part of the driver (and the A170 is a road much travelled by tourist traffic) and you could be off the road and in the hedge. Icy surfaces didn't help, because that part of the road is quite elevated and prone to snow and ice. They straightened it out and now it's a lot safer.
 
Floyd said:
Compare the photo with the Queen to this one.
The road looks much straighter now;

View attachment 77185
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The google streetview images are taken with a wide angle lens, that makes the road look much straighter.

Also, on the road I drive between Alton and Basingstoke there are corners which feel like they turn a full 90 degrees but when I look at them on google maps they are barely more than 45 degrees. This is a common illusion.
 
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