I used to believe that the dinosaurs died out a year before i was born so I would always ask older people what the dinosaurs were like. I think they were offended

Tanner

Until I was in High School, I really thought that the "underground railroad" was under the ground.

S

I don't seem to do a good job explaining things in an understandable fashion to small children. When my first child at the age of 4, watched Jerrassic Park with his father (while I was not present, obviously) and was quite shaken up by it, I tried to explain "extinct," while silently cursing my ex-husband for having been such a nimrod to let him watch it and leave me to deal with the trauma. After many failed attempts, I broke out the paleoentology book showing a Mammoth skeleton and explained that scientists dug up the bones from the ground and put them back together and from there they GUESS how the animal looked. This discussion led into how movie makers created animatronic dinosaurs for the movie and they didn't use real dinosaurs.
At bed time every night my son would run down his usual list of fears, seeking reassurance from me about each by stating, for example, "No thunder?" I would assure him who slept like a log, "no thunder." But I noticed, his list now included, "No dinosaurs in our yard?" I wasn't sure what he was afraid of but assumed none of my explanations had made any sense to him what-so-ever and just assured him, "No dinosaurs in our yard."

Years later, my son found a drawing I had done of a window with a gigantic dinosaur eye looking in at you, the viewer. He asked me what it was about. I told him about his "no dinosaurs in our yard," fear. He laughed and said that my attempts to explain paleoentology and animatronics to him, had him believing that dinosaurs were buried all over, everywhere, including our yard and could come up out of the ground at any moment in that T-Rex skeleton pose and materialize into the kind of dinosaurs Steven Spielburg caught and trained for his movie.

Go figure...

Phooie

I used to think that Sinn Fein was just one person. When i read history books i used to think that this man called Sinn Fein must be really fit for his age cause he had been around for a long time.

Charlotte

I used to think kings and queens couldnt leave their thrones.Food,drinks,and everything were brought to them,and there was a toilet in the throne.

sam

I used to think that there were no bombs or casualties in England in World War One!

History person

My grandfather once received a mysterious telephone call. "who was that?" my grandmother asked when he had hung up.
"Oh, that was Bonnie Prince Charlie," replied my grandfather. "He called to invite me to his wedding."
I pestered Grandpa for the next several weeks asking when he was going to the wedding.

BoB

Once, my brother asked my mom when we were looking at her childhood pictures, "When did the world get color?" - My mom explained that white photos did not capture color but that she lived in a world of many shades :)

Michael's sister

Until I was about eight I thought that there had been actual fighting during the Cold War.

Miss Taken

I used to believe that when 9/11 happened, the suicide bombers ran into the empire state building and that too had been destroyed. But in 2007, I went to New york and was surprized to find it still standing. Everyone started to laugh the second I asked, " I thought the empire state building was gone! "

Katelyn

I used to think that the Battle of Hastings took place in France, and that Hastings was the English name for the actual battleground!

Rama

When I was little I thought those old photos and portraits (Napoleon, etal) with one hand in the front coat lapel meant that they were scratching.
Actually, maybe I was right.

Monty

I am a decendant of Peter Wentz. One time George Washington used his house as head quarters in the Battle of Germantown. When I was little I always imagined Gerge Washington sleeping on Peter Wentz's couch in the living room. And that couch in my mind looked a lot like this old Victorian davenport my grandparents owned.

Corrine

When I was small, I would sometimes hear that the stock market crashed in 1929. I got "stockmarket" mixed up with "starmarket" (that grocery store chain) and that gave me the idea that a plane had crashed into a starmarket in 1929. When I saw a commercial for starmarket sometime later, I asked myself "The starmarket? I thought it crashed."

Queeny

I thought nothing interesting happened between the death of Jesus and discovery of America 1500 years later

Gregg

A family member (I don't remember who- not me, I swear) was once told to write a story in school. He began:
"Once upon a time when diosaurs ruled the earth and Grandad was a little boy..."!!!

Rachel

I used to believe that Davey Crockett was a wonderful, gentle frontiersman, just like they portrayed him on the Wonderful World of Disney. I recently found out that he killed MANY Indians! Interesting how Disney left that part out. I don't care for Davey Crockett anymore. Maybe I was confused because Fess Parker also played Daniel Boone.

me

While going to school in Chicago and learning about the great Chicago fire, I was sitting in the back yard with my mother while she was feeling great, young and healthy, I asked "Mom...whatever happened at the end of the world"

Monique - MASS

When I was little, I saw a picture in an encyclopedia drinking milk from a wolf's breasts. Around the same time, I had heard my dad telling a Helen Keller joke. Wondering why somebody would do such odd things (you've heard them all), I came to the conclusion that Helen Keller must've been raised by wolves. I thought this was the case until I was about 17 years old.

Auston

When I was younger, I was totally convinced that the only person who knew everything was George Washington, and that he was still alive. I told my mother that someday I would meet him, and I would ask him how many people knew everything, and he would respond, "Why, just me, of course!" (OBVIOUSLY because he knew everything.)

Kara