body parts

When I was little, I thought if guys grew their hair to their shoulders, they were automatically girls. And if girls kept their leg hair too long they were automatically boys.

My Mom used to get me to rinse the shampoo out of my hair by singing "Wash that bear out of my hair," an adaptation on the song by South Pacific.
For a long time, I thought my hair got dirty because of the bear that just kept coming back!

When I was a child I believed cavities were things that happened around the time that my mother was a child, and no child had cavities in modern times. This happened because people back then didn't know how to brush their teeth, and in modern times everyone was smarter. I believed it until I was 15, and had my first cavity. I felt really bad and asked the dentist if he did fillings in young people.

I used to think that all words for female private parts started with a B. I thought girls had boobs, a butt, and a 'bagina'. I found this to be a rather helpful way in remembering what girls had, and told a few of my classmates of mixed genders in second grade. They seemed to all agree that it was quite an outstanding coincidence. We called it "the three B's". I wonder when they figured it out...

I used to think that your whole stomach was called a belly button, and that your whole midsection was part of it.

I was early to "develop" and also a tomboy. I started getting a chest in the fourth grade and was devastated. I don't know why, but I was convinced that boobs grew at night, so I always wore my bra to bed to try and curb the process. My mom set the record straight after doing laundry and confronting me on why I always needed new bras.

My grandma had a tooth which was half gold. She told us that we could get a tooth like hers if we didn't stick our tongue in the space our tooth fell out of. I was never successful at that.

While driving down the road, I told my mom that I needed to pluck my eyebrows, she asked why and I replied that I didn't want them to intercourse.

I used to believe that cowlicks on hair were literally licked by a cow. I thought, "why would you let a cow lick your head, and why is it permanent?"

I used to believe that if you clean out the dirt from your belly button you would die. An adult told me that and I believed them. It made sense to me because I knew that's where the umbilical cord came from.

My aunt told me my fingernails would quit growing if I didn't stop chewing on them. I was in my late teens/early twenties before I figured out this wasn't true.
I thought that a woman's private parts were called "China" - imagine my confusion when I learned that fancy dishware and a country were also called China.

My grandmother told me that if I didn't get my cuticles pushed back that they would grow over my nails. Our neighbor at the time lost his thumb nail and she told me that was what had happened to him. I had great cuticles as a kid.

I told my brother that all girls were born with holes in their ears, and that by keeping earrings in the holes it meant you were proud to be a girl, but some girls let them close up and then got them pierced again. He believed it for most of his childhood.

When I was little, a boy at school told me that the white dots that sometimes appear on fingernails were caused by lying. From then on, I was wary of people with injured fingernails. When they developed on my nails occasionally I would worry that everyone would know I had told a lie. I grew up to be very honest!

I thought braces were made out of precious metals and that's why they were so expensive!

When I was young. I thought that if you touched your belly button, that yOu could transport anywhere in the world! So I kept prodding at my innie, hoping that I would be transported to Candy Land. I told all my friends and that poked at theirs and mine. Now, I have a little piercing in it of a candy to ring back the memories!!