To trust my memory from the 90s

[Altontowersq]

Today we were talking about Alton Towers and my partner googled the Nemesis and found out that it opened in 1994, it's on Alton Towers own website.

I have a really vivid memory of going there in my last year of primary school in 1992 and the Nemesis was newly opened. I know the year that I went is 100% correct as I went with friends from primary who went to a different secondary school. I have never been to Alton Towers since. I won't go into the details of why I remember this as it is outing but it's very detailed and specific and I've always had this memory.

Is there anyone here who went to Alton Towers in 1992 that could confirm this? I'm going crazy.

The Wikipedia page is very detailed and says it opens March 1994. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(roller_coaster)#:~:text=Nemesis%20is%20an%20inverted%20roller,park%20on%2019%20March%201994.

I know you can’t always take Wikipedia as 100% fact but the information is generally accurate and I would believe it over a 30-year-old childhood memory, especially if the information is corroborated by Alton Towers’ own website.

I went in 1994 and it had only opened earlier that year.

Nemisis had just opened prior to my first visit to Alton Towers. I was in year 7 of high school. I started high school in Sept '93 and visited in March '94 as the park opened after winter closure.

You're definitely mistaken, sorry!

https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/history/old-park-maps/

1994 definitely

Was it a different ride?

I also thought it was earlier

You sure it wasnt a different ride?

Talk to me about Nelson Mandela....🤣

That's very interesting because I also remember a school trip that I definitely thought involved Alton Towers even earlier than you, in 1989! But I guess I must be mistaken too, I imagine they know their opening date better than us. Unless it's all an elaborate hoax.

Oh wait sorry I read too quickly, you meant a specific ride 😂 Alton Towers itself was in fact open in 1989, glad I'm not going mad!

Could you have started your last year in September 92, and finished in July 93?

Or was a different new ride opened which you've conflated with nemesis in your memory, perhaps because of tv ads?

Could it have been Thorpe Park?

Are you thinking of The Beast?

First time ever I went to AT was as a 12 year old in 1994. Nemesis was new then but I chose not to go on it, I hate the idea of dangling from the neck.

Might the ride have been being built, signs up etc? Unless you remember actually being ON the ride

Could it have been a different newly opened ride or even a different park?

😯Doesn't sound fun

I vividly remember going there in 1994, I didn't go on the ride as I was a scaredy cat. My Dad had been given some free tickets.. Through Green Flag, I think.

Nemesis was the current Big Thing.

I'd have been too young before then.

@Altontowersq you're definitely misremembering

I'm not sure you've got quite the right idea about the seating set up on Nemesis 😂😉

OP I went to Alton Towers on my 12th Birthday, 1995. Nemesis was the newest ride then.

Could have been I'm getting confused with another one?

You might remember the big "COMING SOON! NEMESIS!!!" signs.

I bet there was another ride which opened in 91/92 and you're remembering that but have transposed the name and perhaps images of Nemisis onto that memory.

We do this kind of thing all the time. Memory doesn't actually work like a video recorder. It doesn't mean anything is wrong with you, it's a very common thing to happen with memories.

I went on Nemesis when it was newly opened in 1994. It was the Year 7 school trip and I queued for 4.5 hours to get on it with my best mate.

Memory is actually a bit like this: you encoded a description of what you remember, and every time you recall it, a computer in your brain accesses that bit of writing and makes it into a film for you, possibly also including smells, tastes, physical feelings, emotions etc. It doesn't store the film because this would take up too much space and anyway it can just recreate it whenever you want.

But the problem is as you get further away from the memory, the original description gets a bit less clear what exactly it's referring to. For example, imagine in 1980 you wrote down "he was holding a mobile phone" and then later you asked someone to illustrate this. The device that someone from 1980 would picture and someone from 2020 would picture would be totally different.

You might have originally recorded something like "so excited for Alton towers newest ride!" A couple of years later, you see all the marketing for Nemisis and that becomes "Alton towers newest ride" in your head. Maybe you plan with friends to go, even if you never make it. If someone had asked you at this time whether you've been on Alton towers newest ride, you'd know that no, i haven't. But fast forward a few years from both of those memories, and you've probably forgotten the distinction of which exact ride. The thing that you remember is that it was a newly opened ride, and the entry that your brain has for "Alton towers: newly opened ride" is nemesis.

That's how the original memory gets corrupted.