I used to believe that the state seal (you know, the picture on the state flag) was an actual animal seal! I believed that every state had an animal seal at the state capitol! I believed this until I was in 7th grade.

Lauren Carroll

I belived that in order to be President you had to run a race and I'd alaways want to see the race but no one would Know what I was talking about.

Anon

This is not my belief. This is one of my frends. He thought that when a Preadent dies, They go to The United Stats of Heven. He also thougt that Gorge Bush was dead. I said "He not dead. He still at the White House. Im going their soon."

He took it the wrong way and said "You Going To DIE?

Mr.GH

I once wrote to John Major and asked if he would be my penpal. I really believed he had nothing better to do! I thought it could be a nice hobby for him.

Rebekah

When someone mentioned the word 'politician', I always pictured people who worked in washington D.C. who always wore red white and blue dress suits, and red white and blue tophats. I always believed that politicians carried a little american flag with them too.

God Bless America

When I was young, I was driving in the car with my father, and they were talking about politics on the radio. The words "Democrat" and "Republicans" kept coming up, and I asked my dad what the difference was. His response was, "Well, last year they elected a Democrat. In a few years they'll get sick of him and elect a Republican. Then the same thing will happen and they'll elect a Democrat again." This was my understanding of the U.S. political system until around my senior year in high school, when I discovered that it was a bit more complex than that. As my knowledge of politics grew, however, I came to realize that my dad had pretty much summed things up pretty accurately.

Anon

I grew up in West-Berlin, when is still was in the middle of Communist territory. Passing the border by car to transit through East-Germany (for a holiday, typically) took hours and the controls were harsh, with dogs and seaches and lots of paperwork and lots of questions.
I thought the reason was fighting highway robbery and always felt uneasy when we were visiting countries like Denmark of Switzerland where you wouldn't be harrassed for hours when entering. I thought they were irresponsible and dangerous places!

Anon

I always thought that the president was the richest man in the world.

Kevin

I haven't seen this variation on the Watergate theme yet:

Like a lot of the others here who were around six or seven years old during Watergate, I had a very literal interpretation about some kind of "Water Gate" that was broken, clogged or overflowing in some way. I put that together with all the "bugs" I kept hearing about and thought that if you turned on a sink faucet bugs would come pouring out. I only remember being afraid of the faucets for a day or two (it was probably only an hour, lol!) before my parents straightened it all out for me but I I still think about it every time I hear the word Watergate.

JS

When I was four, I got into an argument with my uncle. He said that the vice president was Spiro Agnew. I said it was Uncle Sam.

Matt

I used to believe that communist is someone who wears weird military uniform, grows a bushy moustache (I watched too many films in primary school) and hates Church and religion - so since my neighbour never goes to church and isn't shy to tell he doesn't believe in God, I was convinced that he is civil form of communist. Then when in school, at history lesson, our teacher told as that communist countries like Soviet Union or Northern Korea were to blame for genocides of millions and that communism is the most bloody form of governing in history. I was scared like hell because putting two and two together I came to conclusion that we live next to insane murderer!

Still not leftwinger

I just assumed that the President was one of the richest people in the world when I was in elementary school. (At the time the president was Clinton) Cause money equals power over a nation, right?

Lucey

When I was 4/5 (U.S. kindergarten age), I believed that "the government" (which I often heard my parents discussing) was the title of a man who looked like George Washington.

Seethaki

When election time came, I used to think that whoever was up for nominations, (about ten or twelve in number) came in first, got the presidency, and the one who came in second, was vice president.

Anon

When I was 5 Jimmy Carter was running for reelction against Reagan. My parents were devoted Democrats, and somehow I got the idea in my head that if REagan won he would send all of the people who voted for Carter to Alaska to live with the Eskimos. I kept this to myself for a while, petrified, before finally breaking down and telling my mother, who assured me I would not need a parka no matter how the election turned out!

Anon

When I was a preschool kid, I used to believe that kings and queens only existed in fairy tales, like the other characters (dragons, fairies and things like that) that Mom had said were "just make-believe". Seeing news stories from England on TV impressed and confused me at the same time: "Mommy, is that Elizabeth lady real?"

Ingeborg S. Nordén

That the leader of each country was the smartest person in that country and that they were also the richest people in the country. Except for in America where i thought astronauts were richer and England where i thought the Queen was richer.

Tim Fawcett

I used to believe that Bush kept a buch of dead bodies underneath the white house. Dont ask.

Lecia

In fifth grade, I thought that part of the reason that Quebec wanted to secede from the rest of Canada because English was printed above French on cereal boxes, and they wanted French to be on top. I thought that they should have a better reason for making such a fuss.

Torontonian