grown-ups

I was brought up in New Zealand where there was a non-littering campaign telling us to 'be a tidy Kiwi'. My father brought us an icecream at a children's park and lifted us all up, one at a time to put the wrappers in the rubbish bin. The bin had a sign on it which said 'look at the tidy Kiwi' and in the bin was a mirror so you could see yourself being a 'tidy kiwi'. To this day my sister (now 35 years old) believes that my father was showing her that she belongs in the rubbish bin.

I am an Air Force brat and my dad was always stationed at SAC bases, and he also did not drive. When stationed at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters, my dad told me that the missile in front of base headquarters picked him up for work in the morning. I never did ask how he got home after work. I have to admit my kindergarten teacher sure looked at me weird when I told her that "a rocket" took my dad to work in the morning.

I used to believe…

When I was around four or five, I used to believe that adults were just born adults and that children were just born children. Being a somewhat eccentric child who was bothered by the stupidity of what were normal kids, my mother got a great laugh when I exclaimed rhetorically - 'Why couldn't I have been born an adult!' The frustration stayed with me right up until about puberty, even after matters had been cleared up for me.

I used to believe…

When I was about 10 or 11 I was playing house with a couple of other girls. Of course we had to make up stories about where our husbands were because they weren't around. One girl said her cousin had a baby without being married; the other friend knew this was "bad". I thought about it for several days before I decided that God had made a mistake and given the cousin and her boyfriend a baby because they were so much in love and He hadn't realized they weren't married.

I used to believe…

Growing up I believed that as time would go by you would automatically get wiser! I belived this for years and years. Now that I am fairly grown myself, I have learnt that in order to get wiser you have to apply yourself.

I used to believe…

My sister and I used to believe that as we grew older we would turn into men, and that our little brother would turn into a woman. We had an incredible sense of justice and thought it was only fair that you got to live half your life as each sex.
We must have been about 5-6 years old, and kept asking our mum when we'd turn into boys. One day she got mad and told us to "stop talking nonsens!". It was a shock. We cried.

I used to believe…

when i was a little girl, i believed that when i hit puberty i would grow a penis and become a man. when people asked me what i was going to be when i grew up, that's what i said: a man. never happened, thank goodness. :)

I used to believe…

When my older sister was teasing me or being mean to me when I was younger, I used to tell her: "Just WAIT till I'm older than you, THEN you'll pay for everything you ever did to me..!" I was convinced that when you reached a certain age, you would start all over again...

I used to believe…

once, my mom and my older cousin went fishing on the mountain without me. i was jealous, and i suspected them to have an affair, in spite of their age difference and family relations. silly me!

I used to believe…

when i was little, i used to believe that if i, somehow, got away from my mother, nobody would ever care to find me again, and that strangers wouldn`t care either, even if they had seen a kid alone in the city.

I used to belive that the older you got the taller you got. And you never stoped growing, and I belived you never died. So I thought 80 year old people was like 20 inches or something. Until the day I went to see my grandparents....

I used to believe…

MY FATHER ALWAYS TOLD ME THAT IF I DIDN'T LEARN TO COOK, NO MAN WOULD EVER WANT TO MARRY ME. I BELIEVED THAT RIGHT ABOUT UNTIL I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL.

I used to believe when I was seven that I would one day marry Macauley Culkin and even acted out the wedding with my best friend Robyn pretending to be Macauley - it goes without saying that we didn't share the man and wife kiss at the end: that would have been too weird!

I used to believe…

my dad told me that when people got "the sack" from work, they were literally put in a sack and thrown over london bridge into the thames. I believed him and argued with a teacher about it. I then spent a whole morning stood in the corridor for my beliefs. Thanks Dad.

I used to believe…

In my young days I believed that all people are related to me and irrespective of caste creed or colour, I considered them all as my superiors and I almost bowed before them, with the result that some of them thought that I was making fun of them.

I used to believe…

When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, I remember being under the impression that firemen started fires. Someone eventually pointed out my misconception, and told me that the firemen in fact put out the fires. That made me wonder who did start the fires (I guess I assumed arson was the only way a fire could start). After that, I pictured groups of silent, mysterious men in black masks, who would sneak into your house and set it on fire.