A childhood belief about clowns

I used to think that clowns were a species separate from humans. They looked a lot like humans, but their faces were pure white with huge red lips and round red noses, and they wore weird clothes and couldn't talk. They lived far far away. At friends' birthday parties and the like, whenever there was a clown, I would go up to them to determine whether they were a "real" clown or not. I would always find that they were just people wearing makeup, and I would become very disappointed. I'd go up to the clown and say "you're not really a clown. That's just makeup." I think this confused them a lot.