I was pretty small when Nixon was President. I thought "Watergate" was a type of alligator.

Ginger

My father is an avid republican. When I was in preschool, we'd watch the news together, and whenever a picture of Bill Clinton came up, he'd point and say "That's the wicked wizard of the East. He kidnaps children."

I proceeded to go to my preschool class and warn all my friends about this evil wizard.

Anon

Anytime you had a question (any question at all) you just called the president.

Erin

When I was about 6, which would have made it about 1951, I said something innocuous to my grandparents and my grandfather said, "Better not say things like that, or McCarthy will get you." He was joking, but for years I thought "McCarthy" was some kind of mythical ogre like the "boogeyman" who would kidnap you if you misbehaved. For years every time I was bad I worried about "McCarthy". Many years later I found out I hadn't been all that far off.

Eric

When I was little I thought the london underground was a terrorist organisation

Anon

Growing up in the UK in the 80s, I thought Margaret Thatcher was married to Michael Foot, the left-wing leader of the opposition, and that all the stuff on the news about her being the Iron Lady and him being a hopeless old lefty was to do with the fact that she bullied him at home and wouldn't do the cooking and stuff.

Billy

I live in Illinois, and I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade in 1998, when we had a gubernatorial election. We had a little mock election at school, and the night before, my dad sat me down to talk about the candidates for governor. Although our family is Democratic, my dad advised me not to "vote" for Glenn Poshard just because he was a Democrat, since he was in favor of legalizing assault weapons.

However, I didn't hear the "a" in "assault," so I thought he said "salt weapons." I literally spent the next four-or-so years of my life wondering what on earth a "salt weapon" was—I envisioned a machine gun that spewed out salt shakers, and somehow the salt was caustic enough to kill people.

Cat

I used to believe that George Washington was trying to talk to me whenever I got water up my nose during a bath. To this day, I have no idea why.

Anon

When I was very young, I would hear about the "Iron Curtain" and I thought it was a gigantic metal drapery between countries and no one could go through it.

AK

I thought the President of the US was like the King of the World, and because he was America's president he would have to be good. After all, America was good. He always was and would always be President. Then people started complaining about him (Nixon)and saying how he did bad things, and I thought "How could this be? He's President of America and America is good." Then they started talking about imnpeachment, and I thought they were talking about peach-mint ice cream!

Kdees

when i was little(about 2), george Bush was president and i thought he and his vice president were people who snuck around and hid behind bushes and got information about people, and his vice president wrote down everything.

prpleprincess

Back when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK, my left-wing grandad used to say, "When Maggie Thatcher speaks, green slime runs down the walls!" From then on I'd always look very closely at the TV whenever they showed Parliament, looking for the slime. I also worried, especially when I couldn't see it in the House of Commons, that Maggie's devilish influence would bring green slime running down the walls of our house!

Daisy K

You know how the U.S penny is copper, and most of the rest are silver-looking? When I was in kindergarten, I firmly believed that Abraham Lincoln was a black man due to his color on the penny--- after all the rest of the presidents had silver (white) coins, while Lincoln had copper (brown) coins. Even when I saw a picture of him, I though the press was lying to us. I never understood why all the adults kept on saying that "We should have a black president" and I would always say impatiently that we already had one! As a result people just laughed at me and called me an idiot. Man--- all that over a damn penny! I was mainly laughed at the rest of my childhood. Needless to say, I have learned not to judge anyone by the amount of melanin they just so happen to have in their skin!

The girl who knew nothing

I used to believe that when the race for the presidency was Really a race. The the two candidates ran through each state and the one who got there first, won the state. Whoever had the most states became President. I was 7.

Anon

I was 6 when JFK Sr. was killed. I thought the President lived under the dome of the capitol building. Sitting there in the center his President chair. Nothing else in the room. I couldnt understand how oswald got past the guards, climbed up the outside of the building, thru the large arched glassless windows and shot the President.

Pat

While in kindergarten one day, I remember somebody interrupting the class and telling us that Jimmy Carter had been elected president. Shortly after I asked my teacher what a president did and was given a rushed answer, "he runs for stuff...". For the few years following I believed that the president was a marathon runner who did so wearing a suit followed by other suited runners wearing dark sunglasses.

B Lantz

When I was about eight, since basically all my parents watched was the news, I thought that the definition of politics was old guys in suits that argued about what was in law textbooks. My mom later explained it when I was ten.

Anon

i used to think that "waldo" was the w. in george w. bush. thanks dad

lauren

When I was a child we listened to the radio for our news, and I remember hearing several times about how President Truman was having a Steak Dinner for visiting royalty. I knew steak was pretty scarce in our house so that would have been a nice treat. Of course, now I know he was hosting STATE Dinners for people.

MerryMarjie

i thought president Bush was an actuall bush.

oops