Since he had fought in WWII, I naturally assumed my grandfather had killed Hitler himself.

Anon

I used to think that World War I and World War II were "War War I" and "War War II", because I've always had bad hearing and I've only seen it wrote out as WWI & WWII. I actually put "War War I" on a timeline for a project in 6th grade.

Anon

In 4th grade we had to read "Number the Stars" (for those who don't know, that's a children's book about how the people of Denmark helped Jews escape the Nazis). Awesome book, except that I became convinced that the Nazis were going to come and get me. This is a bit strange because there is a section in the book where a Jewish little girl is staying with her Christian friends and the family has to convince some Nazi soldiers that she's thier daughter, using the name and baby picture of one of thier real daughters who had died years ago. The dead daughter happened to have dark hair when she was born (and which later turned blonde). The dark-haired baby picture made the soldiers accept that the dark-haired Jewish girl could have been born to the blonde parents. Given that I am a natural blonde myself, and so much was made of blonde hair meaning "not Jewish", I have no idea how I could have believed the Nazis were after me, too.

Blonde girl who would have helped the Jews too

I was a kid (about 8) during the first Gulf War and one night I over heard my Dad talking to his friend about his boss who was "So Damn Insane", but I misheard "Sadaam Hussein"...so for years after I thought that my dad worked for Sadaam!

Anon

I used to think the Civil War was actually the Silver War. So one time in school they were talking 'bout the civil war and i said, " hahahaha your saying the name wrong, its silver not civil!" Then a boy said, "what was the 'silver war' about" in a real snotty way and i said, "They ran out of silver spoons and they were fighting for some more" Everyone thought i was brain dead...

Lauren the Silver Doof

Until I was about 13, I believed that the Gulf War took place near the Gulf Of Mexico....

D

When I was somewhere between 7 and 10 we had to read a book about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan (this was in the 80s, not the 50s). The book was written from the perspective of the Japanese, and we were suppossed to be learning not to be ethnocentric (which is great). However, somehow it escaped me that my own country had dropped the bomb (maybe I'd have been more scared if I'd known we did something like that). I also didn't get it that atomic bombs hadn't been used since WWII. For weeks I'd stare at the ceiling of my bedroom waiting for a bomb to fall through and nuke me.

Not Nuked Yet

When i was younger i used to think 'Wars' were 'Walls'. I thought that is you were in a war you would be stuck in a stone wall with no way of getting out. (I can still remember what i thought it looked like)

I was talking with my mother when she said that my granddad was in the war (he was still alive) i was so shocked i said ''How did he get out!''.

Then later we watched a WW1 thing on TV and my mother said ''All those people survived the war''.

Again, i was totally shocked.

:)

Leo

I was 6 when current Iraq war started. All the wars I had heard about were a long time ago, and I believed that the last war ever to take place in history was WWII. I thought all the news reports about the Iraq war were history shows and we world was never ever going to have wars again.


If only that was true.

Emmy

I used to believe that World War II had literally been fought all over the world. I also had no concept of how much time had passed since the end of that war and when I was born in 1981. I had images in my mind of the city I was born in still being in smoking ruins because of the war.

Sarah

When I was younger, I thought that in a war, one army would go on one side and the other would go on the other side of the battlefield. They wouldn't move, just kneel and shoot their guns. The side with the most people alive at the end won.

Once when I was in first grade, I renacted the Civil War with pennies and they fought it like I thought they did.

Emmy

When I was about three I used to believe that a huge bee was flying over the house. It as years before I realised it was a flying bomb on it's way to London.

Reigna

I used to believe a war was people shooting each other from across a field. Whatever side had the most people living after was the winner of the war.

Rather violent.

Tinkerbell

I used to believe, whenever I heard the term "third world", that it meant the place we now live because the first and second world wars had destroyed the first and second worlds.

Stephanie

I used to believe that a swastika was just a mark to differentiate a military airplane from a regular airplane. I had no idea what a Nazi was, I had just seen the symbol in a couple of movies and figured that's what it was. I finally discovered the truth when I drew swastikas on an airplane at school and the teacher told me not to. My mom explained it was a symbol of hate, and I stopped immediately.

bear claw bill

When I was little I wasn't able to figure out how an army could win a war or battle without killing all the soldiers on the other side.

Miss Taken

I used to believe that the Gulf War actually took place in the Gulf of Mexico, and I imagined that the land all along the Gulf Coast was desert and you would be able to find all the wrecked vehicles and ruins from the war.

Tim

When i was a child i thought the Gulf war was a war between rivaling Golfers.
and i imagined them shooting golfballs after each other. :)

Stefan

Wen I was a kid i thought the Gulf War was "The Golf War" I pictured men running around killing eachother with golfballs and such

silly me!

Simen .H.A