The sad thing about this one is that I wasn't even a kid - I was a young teen with new ZITS! I worked out in my head the idea that I could carefully but effectively remove them with sand paper. It did remove them in a sense, but did not have the desired effect. And it really hurt! A stupid believe (theory) but a true story. (PS - I only tried it once.)

Jon

I have a wart on the end of my index finger, and have since I can remember. When I was little I would suck my first two fingers. My brother told me that I sucked that wart right out of my finger, and I believed it!

Pamela

Upon the birth of our youngest daughter, we found she had been born with an extremely large, "Hemangioma/Strawberry-type, Birth Mark." Because of it's extraordinary size, I had told my daughter (when she was about 2), that all babies born with Birth Marks had been kissed by an Angel and that explained why they had them, but that in Her case, she had been "kissed by an entire Host of Angels!" She's 13 today, and still believes this is true. (Or so she says she does!) *smile

Dazed n' Confused Redneck Ridgerunner

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I overheard my mother mention 'colored people'. I thought that she meant people who were green, blue, purple, etc. I'd never seen anyone like that, so I was looking forward to seeing one someday. Of course, in school, I had plenty of black classmates, but it never occured to me to think of them as 'colored'.

Karen

I thought that a "birth mark" was the first place on your body that was born.

My birthmark is on the back of my head but my older sister's is on the inside of her knee and I could never figure out how THAT part of her could come out of my mom first.

julia

I was about 4 when I first saw a black person. (give me a break, I lived on a farm in Tennessee!) My mother says that I asked him if someone had set him on fire! My mom does not remember how he explained his skin color to me...

Rose

When I was little, I believed I would grow warts if I touched the eye of a fish and the wart would smell "fishy" for the rest of my life!

ArmWild39

When I was a small girl, I used to believe black men had fallen into chocolate.

elodie, French student in eighth grade

When I was young, I thought that black people had a horrible skin affliction. I thought I would slowly turn black if I touched them, and so I avoided them like the plague until I was about 7 years old.

Anon

When I was little I told my great-grand mother that if she spent less time in the tub she wouldn't be so pruny. Later I find out that it was just wrinkles!

kerri

I was told recently that when i was a wee little girlie [about 6] i tried to rub the 'dirt' off of a black friends skin.How stupid.

Kirstina

When I was little I thought that permanent markers would stay forever on your skin too. So one day I took a yellow highlighter (they were shaped the same as permanent markers, so I thought they were the same) and I decided to make a small mark on my jaw. Now WHY, if I thought it would be there forever, would I do that? I have no clue. But I was really worried for days after.

YellowDot

It was well known to us neighborhood kids, that eating crackers made the scabs, needed to stop cuts and scrapes from bleeding.

Wendy

I used to believe that Tan people Counldn't get cold.

becca

I had a very distant aunt who had a very old, faded and distorted tattoo on her arm. When I was a little kid, I used to think that the green splotch on her upper arm was actually where a bird had pooped on her and left a permanent stain.

Stephanie

i used to think the color of african americans skin was black because God had a chocolate pouring machine and he put some white babies on it and it would pour chocolate on them. i concluded that their palms were white because their palms were down on the conveyor belt so they didnt get any chocolate on them. then once i saw my black friend get water on his arm from the water fontain and i thought that his arm would turn white.

zack

I used to think "birthmarks" or "beauty marks" were just a polite term for cancer, and if I looked at someone with a birthmark, I would catch cancer and get very sick and die

Anon