the past: wars

I used to think that when people were talking about the World Wars, they were saying War War I and War War II. I thought the wars were so bad you had to say it twice.

I used to believe the gulf war was fought using exploding golf balls, or at least told people that. I'm not certain if I believed or not. I did think the gulf mentioned was spelt golf, though.

In the early 50's when I was in the early elementary school years we had bomb drills in school where we closed the blinds and got under our desks - I thought we closed the blinds so the bombers would think no one was there and hid under the desks in case they came in just to make sure no one was there.

When my father talked about Cold War, I used to believe that the Cold War was about the soldiers who were fighting in the wintertime and they were frozen to death. Also I thought that the Cold War was just fighting with snowballs.

I used to believe that in war it was very controled. I thought that the two armys fighting against eachother would line up and face eachother with only about 6 feet in between them. The governer or some head official would stand on the edge inbetween the 2 armys. He would say to one army "You may shoot" and one person would step forward and shoot someone from the other army. Then the governer would say to the other army "You may shoot" and they would keep taking turns shooting eachother untill all the soldiers on one side where dead. Yes as you can tell i wasnt very smart and i guess im still kind of dumb considering i just a moment ago forgot how to spell dead. hehe

I used to believe that Nazis were "not-Z's" and I would picture people in army clothes that have pictures of Z's in a red circle with slash. I would wonder why they are called that.

I was a kid (about 8) during the first Gulf War and one night I over heard my Dad talking to his friend about his boss who was "So Damn Insane", but I misheard "Sadaam Hussein"...so for years after I thought that my dad worked for Sadaam!

As a small child in the early 80s, I decided the Cold War was so called because of the harsh climate in Russia.

I was absent from school the day our 3rd grade teacher had explained the holocaust, so for the next couple years I thought it was the same thing as "overcast" since both words sound kind of similar. I thought the holocaust was just a period during WWII when it was really cloudy for a long time.

Polish war memorial ,I thought it was an instruction.as in to polish

When I was young my mom told me that my Grandpa joined the army the day before World War II ended. I can remember bragging to all my friends that my Grandpa won the war. When the Germans heard that Paul Richardson joined the army they knew they couldn't win. So they surrendured

When I was young, somebody said that love is stronger than a war. At that time, my country was in a war and I was scared, so I thought if I find a girlfriend, no one will be able to kill us, as long as we are kissing each other, because LOVE IS STRONGER THAN A WAR!

I was a child in the first 60's, when The Cold War was at it's worst. Soviet Union performed testing of their nuclear bombs in Norvaja Semblja and for us living in Northern Norway that bacame a big issue. We were warned about going outdoors at time, bacause of high rates of radioactivity in the air. To me it made sense - of course it was dangerous! I used to believe that it meant radioes would fall from the sky and right on your head! Search for rescue in the basement was easy for me to understand....
Elin, Tromsoe, Northern Norway.

At some celebration commemorating the end of WWII when I was about 4 or 5 we had a street party. I was very proud of my grandfather who had driven tanks in the war, and half way through the dinner I stood on the table and shouted as loud as I could, 'EVERYBODY! My Grandad won the War!'

I used to believe that wars were spectator events, held in front of audiences sitting in bleachers. When it was time for someone to die, they'd randomly choose a seat number and then you'd walk out to the field and be shot or decapitated or something. Weird.

When I was a kid, another kid told me that the U.S. Civil War was fought over the question of whether "hell" and "damn" should be considered "dirty words". I believed that for what must have been several years.