Sunday, November 18, 2007

The fragility of memory

Last night, while my relatives up here had come over for dinner, my sister got out Operation so that she could play it with my little cousin. I asked my mom when she had purchased the game, as it was one I only remembered playing at friends' houses. She answered that we had in fact owned it for a long time, didn't I remember playing it? I didn't, so I asked my sister if she remembered playing it, to which she replied in the affirmative.

From my perspective, it feels as though they might be playing a trick on me, trying to implant me with false memories. However, it does seem like the kind of game my mother would have bought for me. She was always trying to encourage my desire to become a doctor. When a childhood friend told me that only men could be doctors, women had to be nurses, my mom bought me Doctor Barbie. I've seen pictures of myself listening to my sister's "heartbeat" with a little toy medical kit. She even found a female pediatrician when we moved, so that I would have a role model. I just wish I remembered the game!

2 comments:

Lara said...

my sister and i have both been known to tell stories of our childhood, only to be informed by our mother that it was actually the *other* one that it had happened to. i'm always like, "no, i remember that happening to me!" and my mom's all, "no, that was your sister. you've just heard the story so many times that you feel like you remember it."

memories are weird like that. :-P

Anonymous said...

I had a "assignment" once for a college philosophy course. He told us to make up a false memory about someones childhood and see if you can make them believe it really happened.