In 7th grade we were learning about annexing. I wanted to be a politician and show the U.S. that Canada was tough and not to be messed with by taking over Maine. After all, it was nice and small and close to the border. What we would do would be have secret meetings where we would tell people to move there, then wait 18 years so they could have kids who would be of legal age to vote too, and then one of them would make a bill or something proposing that Maine join Canada and then all the Canadians there that would vote yes. I still, kind of, think it would work...

a proud canadian

In 5th grade, my class took a tour of the state capital building. When I got home, I excitedly told my parents that I saw the room where they execute people. I was so proud; I mean, how cool is it to see where they execute people? I was horribly embarrassed when they corrected me and told me that the "Executive Office" has nothing to do with executing people.

k8ydid

I used to think that Margeret Thatcher was married to Ronald Reagan, because they were always on tv together!

Nat

When I was little I thought each person was elected individually, so if you liked one presidental canidate and someone else's vice president canidate, you could mix and match. When they announced the winners, everybody who won would get together and work together to run the country.

Oh to be so innocent still...

Anon

I used to think that everyone in the country got a turn at being President. I was scared because I didn't want that kind of responsibility or public attention.

Laith

When I was little I worried about the Iron Curtain, I worried that the curtain pole would break as iron was heavy!! I also wanted to know how they secured the curtain pole and where it started and finished!

Kate

When I was younger I used to believe that Margaret Thatcher was a male ballet dancer with a beard. Not unlike "Bullet" Baxter from Grange Hill.

Banky Edwards

In 1986, when I was 5 there were summit talks ("Gipfeltreffen" in German) between Reagan and Gorbatchev in Reykjavík, Iceland. I understood that it was an island far off and just pictured the two heads of government climbing up that high mountain (like I knew in the Alps) with a palm tree on it to have a very serious conversation on top of it. I thought it was useful because everyone could run down the other way if they didn't like each other. It took me a while to understand that such talks didn't need to be on islands nor mountains.

SKH

I used to believe that the Queen and Margaret Thatcher were best friends and imagined them going to each others house for tea.

Zoe Moakes

I use to think that the prime minister would sit down at a big table and name everything so we would know what to call it.

raewyn (australia)

when I was young I used to believe David Letterman was the president. I mean, he was always on TV at night during "adult" time and he always wore a suit and tie..

adam

When I was little I used to think that any political race (like presidential) was an actual relay type race and that they ran around a track passing the baton off to vice presidential candidates

Hollie

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

I used to believe the way they counted up votes was by counting the signs people used to put on their yards

Jaci Marshall

Untill I was about 15 I thought that the birthmark on Mikael Gorbachov's head was actually a map of the world.

Rob , Solihull

I didn't realize the whole checks and balances thing when I was little, and I thought the president could just order something to be done, and it would have to be done. So I always wondered why he didn't order the nation to reelect him, so he could be president forever. I thought that maybe the ONLY thing a president couldn't do was order himself to be reelected, so I thought that he should confer with another country, and come to an agreement that if the other country's president would help his pass a law so he could be president forever, he would help that other president in doing the same thing. At least that's what I was planning on doing if I ever became president!!

k8y

As a child, I thought that President Ford and actor Harrison Ford were the same person. Upon seeing Harrison Ford's movie "Air Force One", I told my mother "You know, he does such a good job being president, he should become the real US president again".

Alison

I used to believe that the Demon Headmaster and Jack Straw were in fact one and the same person. I couldn't watch any parliamentary sections on the news because I thought that he was going to hypnotise me.

Pete

When I was a little girl growing up in Georgia in the 1970's, my Daddy told me that President Jimmy Carter was a close personal friend of his. (He was from our own home state!) Daddy convinced me that we were going to be invited to the White House, and that I was going to play in the backyard with little Amy on her swingset.

Lori

I was born during the Watergate hearings and grew up hearing how responsible Nixon was for the Vietnam Conflict. So, I used to believe that Nixon was the boogey man hiding underneath my bed and that Vietnam was a monster that took children away from their parents.

Jeanine