We've all done it, looked back on the past through rose-tinted glasses and seen things in a slightly more positive light than may actually have happened.
But by the sounds of it, John Inverdale's earlier years were a nightmarish mashup of nostalgia, terror and... well we're not quite sure what.
During Radio Five Live’s coverage of the Cheltenham Festival, the BBC presenter managed to invent the phrase "rose-c***ed glasses".
He swiftly apologises for the "slip of the tongue" (slip?!) before heroically carrying on to the presumably rather bemused next interviewee.
Inverdale sparked outrage following his Bartoli comments last year
A BBC spokesman said: “It was a slip of the tongue and John apologised immediately afterwards.”
Inverdale is unlikely to face any internal sanction over the embarrassment, but it's not the first time the perma-tanned presenter has found himself in hot water over comments made live on air.
In 2013 he caused a storm of outrage after declaring Wimbledon ladies champion Marion Bartoli was "never going to be a looker". Inverdale sparked a backlash when he told listeners that Bartoli was "not much of a looker ... a Sharapova ... you're never going to be 5ft 11in, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that."
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He later lost his Wimbledon presenting role at the station to Clare Balding.
The following year the broadcaster experienced another on-air nightmare during ITV's coverage of the French Open. Inverdale was conversing with two-time Roland Garros champion Jim Courier when talk turned to Twitter.
"Did you know the past parciple [sic] of tweeting was twat... Was twit?" Courier couldn't help but chuckle at Inverdale's double fault.