By Wendy Cartwright

Guest columnist

With all of the excitement surrounding the total solar eclipse, I planned to write a story about the time that I made an eclipse viewer out of a cereal box when I was in elementary school. I was going to tell about standing in the front parking lot of the school with all of the other students, cereal boxes at the ready, to watch the sun disappear.

When I planned to write this, I wasn’t sure of the year that the eclipse had occurred. I could narrow it down in my head to between 1986 and 1991. I used Google to search for the event. What I found surprised me. The last time there was a total solar eclipse in the location that I attended elementary school was in 1869.

I’ve seen posts online regarding the Mandela Effect and I was taught in university psychology courses that most of a person’s memories are, at least partially, false. The Mandela Effect is a false memory that is shared by a large group of people. There have been many examples of this on the internet, including: the Monopoly Man did not have a monocle, Ed McMahon didn’t give anyone a huge check from Publishers Clearing House and Darth Vader never said, “Luke, I am your father.” (He said, “No, I am your father.”)

My eclipse memory is not an example of the Mandela Effect. I have asked friends and relatives about their recollections of the event, and they don’t know what I am talking about. Now I am questioning everything.

I’m not really questioning all of my memories. I have wonderful images that fill my mind of things that have happened throughout my life. Maybe some of them are false. That’s ok. I’ll hold on to them.

I apologize that this story is technically not a Wonder of the Midwest, but I felt that it was an interesting story to tell. I’ll be back next time with another tale of a Midwest Wonder.

Wendy Cartwright hails from the North Vernon area and has lived there most of her life. She has a love of sharing her thoughts on growing up in the Midwest and other stories from her life. She spends her days reading and writing in the home she shares with her husband and chihuahua. Send comments to [email protected].