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top belief!
I didn't quite get the concept of mechanical printing as a kid. I figured whoever wrote books must have been quite exacting and meticulous with his pencil to make all the little letters perfect and regular.
top belief!
Way back before I could read, I used to believe that typewriters were telepathic, and people just hit the keys as fast as they could and the typewriter would write out what you were thinking. So one day, my parents were letting me play with the typewriter, and I thought out a bunch of notes to people and pounded out gibberish with the keys. I then gave the notes to my parents and older children I knew, and thought they were just being mean and pretending that they couldn't read them.
top belief!
As a child, I was travelling by car with my younger cousin. He asked me why there was a flashing red light on top of the radio tower. I told him that was so the radio waves could find the tower at night. Of course, he believed me.
top belief!
I believed that if you looked reeeeealy close at an LP, you would see the words and music printed in the groove, and that the needle read it and played it as music somehow.
top belief!
My older sisters had me believing that electricity was in the ground. I used to go around plugging radios and all sorts of stuff into the ground, and to my surprise, it never worked!
top belief!
On certain three speed bicycles, the shifter is made by a company called Sturmey Archer. On a particularly long ride one time, my mother told me that Sturmey Archer was the name of the little man who lived inside the hub and changed the gears. He had very large ears, which made the clicking noise as you rode, and changed the gears by sticking his nose in and out of the hub. This last bit isn't too far off from how a three speed hub works (sans extremely small man), so she might have been actually trying to teach me something useful...
top belief!
When I was 7 or 8, when the internet was still in its infancy, I went over to my cousins house to see his neat new computer, and check out the internet, something I had never seen before. He explained to me something called 'downloading', but didn't do a great job of it.
I was into stamps at the time (quit laughing at me), and I asked him if he could download any stamps for me. He said sure, and I spent the rest of the evening asking where they came out of the computer, while he tried to explain to me how they could possibly be 'in' the computer...I wanted them to come 'out'. I presumed the objects would simply come out of the floppy drive, but then I wondered what would happen if I wanted to download candy...some bars simply wouldn't fit in that small of a drive.
It was not until a few years later, when I started using the internet at my dad's work, that I figured out that when you downloaded things, they didn't come out of the computer.
top belief!
I once believed that you could draw circles on a piece of paper and if it looked like a record, and you could drop a needle on it and it would play music. I wondered what it would sound like, until my sister finally let me try it. Very disappointing!
yo pensaba k dentro de los radiocasstes habia unos gnomos paequeños k cantaban la canción.
top belief!
i used to think that telephone poles stored energy in them and whenever someone was working on them it meant the pole had run empty and they were filling it back up.
top belief!
this is actually my wifes belief; she usedto believe the theodolite levels that surveyors use to read levels etc on road works and building sites. (The orange camera like objects on a tripod) had a picture inside of what the site or job would look like when it was finished. I put her straight as I am a builder.
top belief!
I used to believe that if you plugged an electrical extension cord into itself (instead of the wall outlet), that the electricity would go round and round inside the cord.
top belief!
I used to believe that if you touched that pink insulation stuff with even one finger all your skin would peel off your entire body. I think some older kids told me.
I used to believe that 'radio' consisted of a big room somewhere that all the entertainers would come into, sing their song, then leave, and the next set would walk in and perform.
top belief!
We were told - in the mid 60s when the new 10 speed "English Racer" bikes came to America - that you had to perform some complicated 'back pedal' manuever to get it to shift. and that it was impossible to master unless you were British and an expert biker.
top belief!
When I was small, I believed that if you ran the hoover over the power cord, or if you didn't keep the machine moving at all times, it would explode.
I insist that my mother told me these things; she denies it.
When I was little my dad told me that tiny musicians lived in the speakers and were the ones making all the music. I would sit and stare at the speakers hoping to catch a glimpse of them. I tell this to my son today.
top belief!
When I was a child, electricity was delivered in these parts by the South of Scotland Electricity Board (it now calls itself "Scottish Power"). I believed that set up on end in the countryside near Stirling there was a huge piece of hardboard which was the South of Scotland Electricity Board. On one side cables went in from the power stations, and on the other side there were rows and rows of plug sockets with wires trailing out, each to one house.
When we were younger, my sister and I used to tell our other siblings that there were people inside our record player. These people would sing and play instruments. They believed us!
top belief!
When I was young I believed that the windmills found in farmers fields were used to keep the cows cool.
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