people

I used to believe…

when I was a kid some other kid told me that if you prank call the CIA they will send a electric "spike" to your phone and it will blow up. I belived him for a long time

I used to believe…

JFK was elected when I was 4. When I was 8, which was after JFK was asassinated, I surprised my parents by talking about "Elect Kennedy" as if "Elect" was his first name. When asked why I would refer to him that way, I explained that his name was "President Elect Kennedy". So, of course his first name must be "Elect" or why would they call him that?

I watched the show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air all the time when I was little. Every time I saw a black man on the street I would think he was "French Prince" and would yell out, "Look it's French Prince!" and point.

I used to believe…

When I was little, I thought that babies were born with a metal name tag. I'm not sure when I discovered that was not true. It may have been when my mother showed me her list of baby names, and told me how she picked mine.

I saw this guy at a hotel and he wore a tag that said "trainee," so I thought that it was his name!

I used to believe…

When i first learned about strangers, I didn't really get what they actually were, so I thought they were certain dangerous people, and I somehow pictured them looking like soldiers.

I attended grade school at a small Catholic school in the US midwest - everyone i knew was either of Irish, French, Italian, Polish, or German descent. Until I was about 8 years old, I assumed all people in America were of these ethinicities. Even people who were other races: which makes sense because the few students of color at my school had surnames that were Irish, French, etc.

I used to believe…

My nursery school teacher was named Mrs. Rainwater. But she didn't want us to call her that; she simply wanted us to address her as "Rainwater" (I guess "Mrs. Rainwater" would've been too much of a mouthful for 3-year-olds). When she explained that to me, she said, "Just call me plain Rainwater." Well, I understood that a little TOO literally and started addressing her as "Plain Rainwater"! Mrs. Rainwater didn't seem to mind, though, and my family thought it was hilarious!

I used to believe…

When I was 4 I overheard my mom talking to my dad about a doctor's appointment she had. I asked her if she was going to see Dr. Pepper, as I believed this was the only doctor there was.

I used to think my birthday was a holiday everybody celebrated ]w]

I used to believe…

When I was 5, I used to believe that if I stopped moving and froze in one position, everyone would think I was a manequen, and not a living person. I even used to climb into shop's display windows when no one was looking and pretended to be a manequen showing off the clothes I was wearing at the time. The people that stopped to look at me with big smiles on their faces only made me believe that I was doing a really good job :-)

I used to believe that if you told a lie that your face would develop blue spots. It was actually just my mum trying to scare me into telling her the truth!

I used to believe…

My mom told me that if you break a pinkie-promise your pinkie will start to shrink untill it completely dissappears. I believed it for a long time and now I tell it to my little brothers.

I was 5 years old when my little brother was born, and my parents named him Alasdair, which my dad told me was short for 'Elastoplast'... I believed him for years!

I wanted a little sister so badly when I was 7 that I told my dad every morning for a month as he dropped me off for school--to go find an orphanage and take home a little girl. I believed that while I was at school, he would be out looking for orphanages, and I would be daydreaming about how much I could teach my new little sister. But whenever he picked me up and I asked him about it, he'd say he didn't go today. I was always so disappointed!

I used to believe…

When I was a kid I found it hard to say "Sebastian". I always pronounced it "Sebastican".