Try this:
In the middle of a conversation with a friend, a romantic partner, on a first date, at a business lunch…
Ask the following question:
“What was the name of your childhood imaginary friend?”
The response will be immediate.
(That is – if the person had imaginary friends. If not, he or she will look at you like you’re a moron.)
I just tested this theory. As I was writing just now, my assistant came to the front door to pick something up. I opened the door and the first thing out of my mouth was:
“What was the name of your imaginary friend?”
Without batting an eye, she said, “Sarah.”
I had two imaginary friends. Connie and Chottie.
Connie and Chottie were always with me. My whole family still remembers them. They helped me in my attempt to dig a hole to China in my backyard, among other things. In my mind’s eye, they look a lot like the two little girls in the Charlie Brown Christmas special who dance with their hair swinging across their face as they lean from side to side.
So, this is today’s question:
Who was your imaginary friend?
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I almost forgot!
For a long time my daughter had an imaginary friend called Barbecue and Barbecue had a dog named Spike.
Sonatina, though I don’t remember any of the details about her other than her name.
Too many to name!
Always wanted to turn my world of imaginary friends into a brilliant writing career.
No imaginary friends, I came from a large family, my Mom always said I was “squeezed between sisters”, so time alone without any company was rare and highly prized. I did have a toy cat I slept with, Mrs. Kitty, but she never was more than a comfort toy. Books, on the other hand, took me to an entirely different world. I was Sally Kimble, Meg Murry and Trixie Belden all in the same week.
This is such a great question and it’s so wonderful to read everyone’s answers.
I was just telling my hubby last week about my imaginary friend — Coca. I have a feeling I must have liked Coca Cola as a child! Anyway I LOVED her and talked to her all the time. Then one day at my grandmother’s house, my grandmother told me SHE spoke to Coca and that freaked me out so much that I never spoke to her again.
Coca, wherever you are, I am sorry. I love you. ~ Maggie
Brendle.
A bit like Grendel,only with a B. I think it was my take on “Brenda” when I was only about 3 years old. She had blond curly hair and really bright blue eyes. At the time, I thought Brenda was the most beautiful name there could ever be.
My mom wasn’t very patient with Brendle after my younger sister was born, and one day I heard her call her “Brendle Buttons.” I hated that name. It was condescending to my friend, who didn’t happen to have a last name, and didn’t need one!
I never had an imaginary friend; I just had my beloved thumb, which I didn’t really give up until first or second grade. It’s too bad I didn’t have one, because even though I had 6 siblings I look back and realize I was quite lonely much of the time. I spent alot of my childhood playing with my dollhouse, and making imaginary families with the pictures of kids in the Sears & Penneys catalogs, and figured I would have 8 children. I actually think I had them all named at one point!..I only have 2 children, but have worked with at-risk and special needs children for many years. Thank you, Christine for posing this question!
This is possibly the best question ever! Though I have to say, I think mine changed a lot, mostly because *I* changed a lot of who I was as a kid. I was always playing make believe that I was someone else. I went through weeks when I was 3 & 4 of being Dorothy Gale, so my imaginary friends were the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. When I was 6, I ran around pretending to be Mary Ingalls, so I had Laura as my kid sister. When I was 7, I was Princess Leia, and the rest of the Star Wars cast were my imaginary friends.
…Clearly my penchant for acting was ingrained young?
As I got older, I started to pretend to be the original characters in my stories–it helped me figure out their voices and how they’d act, and so my imaginary friends were the other characters in my books.
I think the only stable imaginary friend I had for me, Charity, as myself was Tony. He was my twin brother. My parents had told me that had I been a boy, they were going to name me Antony, and I always wanted to be a twin–but not an identical twin–I wanted a twin brother for some reason. So I made him up, and gave him the name that I would have had. I talked to him when I had problems, and he went everywhere with me in my mind. Honestly–he went to college with me, even, still there in my head like the other part of me that I could talk to when I needed the other perspective. Like my wiser self in some ways, who I just gave a name, as I grew. He was very good at helping me not make bad dating choices. LOL. I always thought I was a little odd to keep him around so long, into young adulthood, but I was well aware he wasn’t real, it wasn’t some form of psychosis, but as a writer, my characters are very, very real to me. They have their own voices and when I write, they surprise me–I don’t always know where the story is going to go when I start, and when I try to push it where I think it *should* go, I’ve had characters rebel and refuse to do what I think they should. All that says to me is that I write from a place of intuition and with very well defined characters who truly have their own personalities, and I know instinctively what they may or may not do at an intuitive level, even when my left brain doesn’t consciously realize it.
Tony’s probably still there, too, in some ways, and I still have imaginary conversations with my fictional characters. I just accept it as part of the crazy writer side of things in some ways.
My imaginary friend was called Rhodna the Purple Giraffe.
She lived in a home that matched her skin tone and was an extremely benevolent personage – very calm and cheerful. And tall. She a lot of throw pillows and potted plants, made good cakes, and wore excellent jewelry and shoes.
When I’m casting around for what to write next, I get very quiet and imagine Rhodna sitting in her lovely house, tranquilly working on something resembling a crochet chain that she hands out the window to me. And that’s what I write down.
Thank you for the opportunity to write a little homage to her.
Plum.
She lived in my backyard.
I never had an imaginary friend either – but I had “bunny” my stuffed …you guessed it bunny. I have had “bunny” since I was born and have never gone anywhere without him. He was my friend when i was younger and has been through many washes and many stitches to keep him together. He survived cancer with my, several other surgeries, went to college, was there on my wedding night and honeymoon. A few years ago he had to “retire” to a comfortable drawer when he had a little bunny foot nibbled off (I am being kind) by my Labrador (oh I was sooo mad that day!).
He still comes out very gently on the very bad days!
Michelle,
Your story of “buny” reminds me of the very first stuffed animal I ever had. I was 45 years old, and was rowing through some very rough waters, and a dear friend of mine gave me a stuffed bunny. I named her “Hotsie”, after a dear old lady that was my neighbor and surrogate grandmother as a child. I slept with her for many, many nights, and still do if I have had a bad day! Thank you!
Weldie Gunns was my imaginary cousin. I had cousins, just none my age, my little brother wasn’t entertaining enough yet and apparently I wanted a girl cousin my age. What I remember most about her was telling my parents how she could put her pants on without standing up
My parents have told me that they were relieved when they figured out where I got the name. It’s from Mary Poppins – “A job half done is well begun.”
Velvet. She was my imaginary horse. Her mother’s name was Sugar and Velvet’s sworn enemy was Flame. I was really into horses then!
I was too embarrassed to tell anyone that (if imaginary friends are weird than imaginary horses, with lives like soap opera stars is too weird) but it came up in a conversation at work and was no big deal!
I cannot recall if I had imaginary friends. I did however have an imaginary life that was a lot better than what I was experiencing. That is what carried me to my adulthood. I had and still have a great imagination my creativity grows that way.
I had a whole alternative imaginary life – growing up in a working class western Sydney suburb, nothing adventurous or special ever happened in my life. So when I went to bed at night I would move into that life. My friend was a native Canadian and we would have adventures in the forest together. I don’t recall if he ever had a name but I have to admit, my life in Canada was much more exciting than my sparse real life.
Also my brother and I had imaginary lives where we sailed the oceans on a liner – we were Jack (me) and Bill. There were wives in the background, however, they were never included in our adventure. We could snap into the imaginary life with one word, sitting at the table having dinner, we could suddenly be dining with the ship’s captain.
I am heartened to know so many others had imaginary friends and fantasy lives. I don’t feel so eccentric now. None of my friends (real) have ever admitted to living similar fantasies. Hmmm, now I’m wondering if they were totally honest about this.
Who knew? My mom is very I’ll, recently placed in a nursing home.
But she still remembers me and Carrot. I don’t, but apparently we were BFF.
Good stuff. You are very inspiring.
Usually when I ask folks this question, they look at me like I’m from another planet. My precious childhood imaginary friends were Precky and Rug. No idea where I came up with those names:-) Precky was a girl and Rug, the boy. They were ‘real’ people, not cartoons, but they had yarn hair. Loved reading everyone’s stories!
I didn’t have one – but I wouldn’t look at ya as if you were a moron! I understand them, I just didn’t have one. My sister (who’s 21 months older than me) and I were SO close, inseparable, peas in a pod, etc. that I didn’t have space for one!
Then again, maybe my imaginary friends were characters in the books I read. I started reading when I was so young, I don’t remember ever NOT reading. Perhaps my imaginary friends were Mary Lennox, Dickon and Colin; Anne Shirley; Judy Abbott; Sam Gribley; Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy; Heidi & her grandfather…. They didn’t play with me outside the books, but I loved visiting them time and time again.
I had an identical twin sister who was always with me so I think I never had the need for one. I love reading these stories, though.
Hmmm…I don’t recall having an imaginary friend. I brought many of my toys to life — dolls, stuffed animals, paper dolls — and they all had names (not necessarily the ones bestowed on them by their manufacturers) — but all were very tangible ‘people’.
Sammy.
I can still picture him like a memory instead of imagination.
He was a dragon.. Green with a tiny tuff of red hair. But he couldn’t breathe fire because he was only a baby like me.
I think he appeared after my little sister was born, and stayed with me right up til i made friends at school =)
A friend encoraged me to read this website, brill post, interesting read… keep up the cool work!
I had two originally who were triplets with me: Ballae and Melissa. Ballae I have had from an early age of around 5 and she went away for some reason. My parents brought up her existence and she somehow came back (apparently she had been at a boarding school for the 6 years I didn’t have her.) Melissa was the triplet I didn’t know about till later on. A year and a half later I introduced Katie, Antoinette and Genevieve as companions (kinda like best friends to us all.)
I couldn’t see them or anything but I made up a description for them (partially because I was bored) just from my thoughts, I acted out scenes with them, talked to them obviously and I know that they didn’t exist but I didn’t care. I used them as a way to get my feelings out about certain issues when other people didn’t understand.
I hope I don’t sound crazy :/
this is a great topic to discuss by the way
I had an entire world! When I went to bed, I’d suddenly be there, on this massive island in the middle of nowhere. I think I named it Ingary. I asked mymum about it, once, and apparently she had no idea!
My most vivid memories of it are probably of Adrian and the fruit tree. There was a really big hill on the Island, and at the top was a tree with all my favorite fruits growing on it. The first time I went there, I saw a man sitting against it’s trunk: he had silvery blonde hair, a long black coat with lots of buttons, and ( I remember thinking they were really cool) boots. Adrian went everywhere with me, even outside of Ingary. Inside, he carried me, outside, he was always right behind me, reassureing me and making sure I was ok. He left me when I was almost 14, just after my dad died. When he left, Ingary locked it’s gate on me. I wish I could go back, I loved it there. One more thing, I distinctly remember that in a certain part of the island, everything was purple and soft. Not soft like fur, more like fabric. I really wish I could go back!
As a 4 year old suffering the loss of my father I developed/found two imaginary friends.
Their names were uncommon, never having heard these names before: HUNA and BENIA.
In my late 50’s I found these two names in a novel about the Old Testament! I honestly believe these “friends” have been angels watching over me all my life. They hold very special place in my heart. Having shared this story with a friend I find she has had a friend in her life named Jukele. Again, a name out of nowhere apparently. I wonder if other adults have re-discovered their old imaginary friends???
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