I used to think running for president involved actually running somewhere.

Artimage

When I was 4 years old, there had been a presidential election that year. I had been under the impression that the presidential candidates had to actually run acroos the country, like a running race, and whoever did it the fastest became the next president. I actually believed this until 4 years later, during the next elections. My mom clarified how it really worked.

Tov

I used to believe that George Washington was my father. I ran around during 1st and 2nd grades bragging that he was my father. I have no idea why.

Tiffany

I used to believe "Pedestrians" was a political party like Democrats or Republicans.

August

I used to think that when a president "died in office," he was just sitting at his desk in his office and would just sorta collapse.

David

When there was a referendum for Quebec to seperate from Canada I actuallay thought that Quebec was literally gonna break apart from Canada and that a whole bunch of people would stand on the border and push Quebec away from Canada with machines.

Canuck

When my sister was little, my father would always talk about what a dirty crook Nixon was. She thought he was an a crook like a burglar and was scared that Nixon was going to break into their house at night and rob them.

Kath

when was little i used to believe that if you won the grand national you would become prime minister

Anon

I used to believe that Democrats were some sort of demon-cat hybrid. My dad is a Republican and was always talking about these evil "Democrat" creatures. I knew that the president (Bill Clinton at the time) was a Democrat, and so i figured he was their leader. I wondered why people would ever vote for such bad, man-eating demon-cats. I was mystified for ages, and finally, in about 6th grade, i realized that they were humans, and maybe not so evil.

Laura

When I was little, I thought Abraham Lincoln had a tail. Made sense at the time, considering that every time you had to make a decision, you'd toss a penny and call "Heads or tails!" and on one side of the penny you see Lincoln's head. I assumed that the picture on the other side was his tail. By extension I assumed that all presidents had tails and it was some sort of prerequisite.

Ashley

The (current) Iraq war started when I was about 8. I wrote a letter to the PM of Australia, advising him "stop being friends" with George Bush because I thought he was a bad influence, and was worried Australia would join the invasion.

I seriously believed that he would take my advice!

Anon

When I was very young, I thought that there was a new president each day. I'd repeatedly ask who it was, and thought that George Bush (the elder) must be really good at his job, since he was president seemingly every day.

Ana Byrd

Because they had the same initials, I used to get Winston Churchill and Wilt Chamberlain (a tall, African-American basketball player) mixed up.

Megan

While growing up in the late 70s and 80s, my father always referred to Communists as "Communist Bastards". He never said the first word without the other. So, in elementary school when we were talking about world history one day, I remember raising my hand and answering, "Because the Communist Bastards ..." It was pretty embarrassing.

Jennifer Volz

When I was in junior high (1970s), I heard that if the Equal Rights Amendment passed, men and women would no longer have separate public bathrooms. That idea haunted me for years. I would actively worry about it. I would wake up in the morning and wonder if today was the day when the restrooms at the mall would no longer be separate.

When I was a senior in college, I asked my women's studies teacher if this was ever part of the ERA. Her face got sad as she told me it was part of the misinformation put out by those who were against passage of the ERA. And I knew I had gotten an object lesson in the power of propaganda.

Kris

I thought president's state of the union speech was about the best state in the union. I would listen to the speech hoping Illinois would be named number one. After I figured out what the speech was about, I never listened again.

Steve Pribish

I used to think that -then- president Jimmy Carter had always been the president and always would be. Kinda like a family member.

Syncline

I used to believe that "Bush" (the president) was an actual bush. I thought that was kind of stupid that people were listening to a bush, so I didn't tell them what I thought so I wouldn't offend them!

MAU!

I used to think Ronald Reagan was some kind of glorified boogie man. I'd run around the house in a bathrobe, sunglasses, and scarves tied around my lower face and head shouting, "I AM RONALD REAGAN!!!" I believed that there was a portal in my closet and that if I went into it I'd turn into Ronald Reagan; if I went into it when I was "Ronald Reagan" I'd morph back into me.

Christi

I was 6 in 1974. I thought President Nixon was in trouble for stealings scotch tape. I kept imagining him climbing up my parents' fire escape and looking for scotch tape in my parents' room.

Mike O