There are things that I have long held as memories from my childhood which have turned out to be inaccurate. For example, up until a few years ago, I remembered crossing the field and creek to visit my grandparents on my father's side. I remembered what their house looked like, and pictured both of them accurately in my mind. However, when I mentioned it to my oldest brother a few years ago, he pointed out that my paternal grandmother had died before I was born and I was only a couple of years old when my paternal grandfather died, and the house was sold to someone else, who tore it down and rebuilt on the property. My memories of the house turned out to be accurate, as well as the way in which I pictured my paternal grandparents which, of course, could have come from photographs. But I don't think we had photographs of the house. I also remembered my maternal grandfather having a white owl in the IGA store that he owned, and that it would mostly sit on its perch, but would sometimes fly across the store. I remember that clearly, and it fascinated me. Only another brother told me only a few weeks ago that the owl was stuffed and it never flew anywhere in that store.
I like the way that you clearly remember that owl flying. I'm sure we all have similar false memories. I'm not sure if a man really did come every evening to light the gas street lights in the days before electric lighting came to our street, but I can clearly remember looking out of my bedroom window and seeing a man with a very long stick that had a flame at the top, and watching him light the gas.
It's amazing how your memories of the past with the 'grandparents' you probably frequented as their little guest treated you kindly as their very own. So, you welcomed the idea that they were your real grandparents. About the owl, you had incredible imagination! Children ought to be like that-- creative and full of imagination.
I just had a false memory thing illustrated to me this week that really set me back some. Some of you may have heard of this, I am actually surprised with how much I am on the net that I did not hear of this one. A co-worker asked me if I remembered the name of the bear family that was in the children's books, and I said "like it goldilocks?" and he told me "no the other newer bear"s and I said "Oh the Bernstein Bears." The co-worker says" is that what you remember?" and I said "yes of course I used to read them to my son all the time". He told me to go ahead and Google it, and my mind was blown. We had quite a lengthy discussion afterwards and he said he remembered it the same way as I did. I know I have the books in the attic. I want to find them because I cannot imagine this happening. I was certain of what the name was. I must have read those books out loud a million times.
There is actually a name for this kind of memories. it is called "The Mandela Effect", because so many people remember him dying many years ago. We had this discussion a while back in the paranormal thread, and I am going to copy my original post from there, and the link to the webpage where they discuss this strange occurrence. And, Jenn, your bears are also one of the things that is remembered both ways as well.
This is the first time I've heard of false memories. I seem not to have encountered this thing yet since all my memories are confirmed by other people. Is that a phenomenon of sorts? In our psychology class in college, our professor had mentioned a mix-up of memories or something. It is usually caused by poor or waning memory power. The brain, he said, is a repository of information and the mind processes those information to our liking. However, a glitch such as a mix-up can cause that false memory you are saying. I remember my mother said something false about my grandparents, that they would come to our house when I was a young girl. And that my grandparents would always bring imported chocolates. But that never happened because my grandparents usually brought fruits harvested in their farm. And my mother was the one who bought imported chocolates when she goes to the province (there is an American base there).
That's not it. I have always believed that the owl flew, and that I had known my paternal grandparents.
There came a time that I believed a lot of what my family told me until one day an enlightening thought came to me. Why should I believe what someone tells me if (1) I can't remember it myself and (2) there was no evidence or proof that it was so. So now I just listen to what they remember and not take their memories as my own.