Memory is not actually perfect recall, memory is recreated whole-cloth periodically based on how we imagine things to have happened. A lot of supposedly "vivid memories" that people claim to have are creations based on things they've been told or that they imagine might/should have happened - it's been shown repeatedly that entire memories can be fabricated in this way, or distorted over time.
Here's an article that summarizes it a bit, but I'd suggest taking a class on memory. Coursera has a good one available for free.