DETROIT—When Mitt Romney regaled a Michigan audience this week with childhood memories of a landmark moment in Detroit history, it was a rare instance of emotional candour.

And, perhaps, an even rarer example of time travel.

Romney recalled he was “probably 4 or something like that” the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile.

“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore. The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.

And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.

The timelines suggest Romney could well have been conceived that day. But it is inconceivable he was actually there.

Was Romney wilfully rearranging history for the sake of retail politics? Or was this just an innocent faux-memory absorbed at the knee of his father George Romney, who did in fact oversee the Jubilee festivities? The benefit of the doubt suggests it may simply be a tale heard so many times that Toddler Mitt added it as his own.

Either way, Romney’s memory lapse appears not to have registered with the U.S. political press, which hailed his nostalgic storytelling.

ABC News online described how the Tea Party audience melted as Romney found his emotional groove, “nodding approvingly, even wiping away tears.”

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