Having somebody elses memory?

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to this forum, been reading for a couple of months, but recently made my user name. I have been wanting to post this account for quite awhile now, but only after figuring exactly where it goes, I'll give it a shot.

Since I was born, my family would always go to a local beachside resort town in NJ. Litterally I was not 6 months old and I made my first trip out there. My family would go three times a year. Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. The groups of people that would go would always change, friends of friends, cousins, friends of cousins would make the trip with us, time after time. The constants were always my parents, my grandparents, my aunt and her boyfriend/husband. This happened with the same group till I was about 13 when my parents divorced. Family just wasn't the same and life was different and changing. Fast forward a couple of years when I turned 18. By this time, I was very independant, working for what I had. Helping my mother with my little brother (whom I was 11 years older then). This particular summer I flew out to Florida to see my family on my fathers side with my mother. She kept a great relationship with them, and never held myself or my brother back from socializing with his side of the family.

Now that you have a little bit of background information on myself, this is where things take a slight turn. We are all sitting around the table (myself, my mother, my grandparents, and my aunt). We are all remembering how great things used to be and all the funny memories we shared. This was something that had never really happened since it was a tri-yearly trip to the shorehouse and we had never been seperated from each other for a longer period of time then a couple of weeks. As we're all sitting there telling stories, I decide to tell the story which is very vivid in my mind about how my grandfather went down one of those 'super slides' on the boardwalk and how he turned over on the slide, lost the rag they give you to slide on, and burnt a hole in his pants, shirt, and broke his collarbone. Everyone laughs and giggles at first. Until my grandmother stops quite suddenly and looks at me with this look as if she's lost for words. She then gets up and walks away to her room without saying a word. We all took this as kind of strange, and I'm thinking if I had upset her. She then comes back, with the medical paperwork for bringing him to the doctor. She then asks me, do you remember what your grandfather was wearing that night? I said of course, it was a set of jeans and red hooded sweatshirt that he bought ON the boardwalk that same night that he ruined, which is one of the reasons it was so funny. It was just my grandfathers luck. My grandmother, then turns pail as a ghost and says thats impossible that you remember that, ONLY because it happened 2 years before you were born. This eerie silence overtook us all, and to this day I consider it to be the most surreal day of my life. My grandparents then went on to say that particular year, it was my mother and father before they were married, my aunt and her boyfriend, and my great grandmother who died a few months after I was born. I still have no idea, but looking back on the situation, it is still a picture perfect memory, I remember even the smallest details, where the slide is, the color of it, holding on to the handrail waiting for him to come down, THEN smelling my hand and it smelling like metal.

I'm curious if there are any other members who have had some type of experience like this that is pretty much unexplainable.

Thanks

Interesting story...

I hold credence that it is possible for bits of memory to overlap into subsequent generations. We can see this principle at play when we consider "instincts". How does a bird know to fly south for the winter?

In most cases, if not all, a child will rebuke an attempt to be fed a rotten tomato.

These reactions are resultant of years and years of individuals having learned and experienced these actions and reactions and then passing them onthrough DNA to their offspring.

So, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that it is possible for actual 'specific' pieces of memory to be passed on to human off spring.

Of course it is also possible that you saw a picture of your Grand Father...or that by experience, you knew that he usually wore red and long sleeved garments and just recalled that when asked by your Grand Mother.

It is also possible that your Grand Mother was reacting to her own flawed memory (not suggesting anything personal with that one... ).

Many possible explanations...but a very interesting story that calls for some interesting ponderance...

reply to post by MemoryShock


thanks for the response, definitly agree that i could've been anything in my past, or certain triggers. Its just so odd...as a child i never really had an 'active imagination' so to speak...i've read so much on this site about different speculations, i'm curious to know if anyone else has any experience with something similar to what i've gone thru...thats not a total crackpot lol.