the world

I used to believe…

remember the expression "dig a hole to china"? i took it the wrong way and thought that it meant China was buried underneath us..and everytime i took a step i was probaly stepping on some poor chinese' persons head

I used to think the the whitehouse was right off the highway near my house, I live in Wisconsin;)

Because of a commercial I seen on tv, I thought the whole world was the size of the of the U.S.

Living in the US for a while I meet people allllll the time who believe that Holland and The Netherlands are two different countries. I met a boy a few days ago who said that his ancestors were from Holland but even he didn't know that the official name for Holland is: The Netherlands.

I used to believe that China was attached to the United States somewhere up near Washington state.

Back when President Bush Sr. was in office I had to be about 5. I remember my dad was watching him make a speech on TV and he started laughing. I asked him why he started to laugh at Bush and he told me, "No reason, he's just a good man." So everytime Bush said something (Even though I had no clue what 'Desert Storm' was or even the 'budget') I laughed at him becuase I thought it would make him more chairismatic....

I thought, if checks could be used to buy anything, then why did we bother with money? We were RICH, and my parents didn't even realie it! Cha-CHING! Not sure when I learned the truth, but it was bitter reality at it's best...

When I was little, I asked my Dad why Indian ladies had that red dot on their foreheads. He told me that they say Hello by putting their palms together like they're praying and raising their hands to their bowed heads so their thumbnails hit that spot on their forehead and, since people say Hello so much, it leaves that red dot on their foreheads.

I used to believe that the maps for the United States and Texas were identical.

I used to believe that if you dug deep in the ground, you would pop out (upside down of course) in China.

I used to believe that nobody could see the top of skyscrapers. My first trip to New York City was a great disappointment.

we had a map of hawaii and a map of the continental united states in our hall. both were multi colored, where each island and each state was a different hue.
i used to beleive that each state was an island, but they didn't have enough room on the map to draw the water surrounding each island so they squished them all together to fit on the map.

I moved to Los Angeles from the midwest when I was 18, and was thrilled to hear reports on the radio about surfing conditions. But I always wondered where Port AuVere was located. I was 27 before I realized he was saying waves were "poor to fair."

as a small child in the early seventies, i was desperately aware of shortages and the need to understand our resources: gasoline, climate change, CFC's, water (we lived in southern florida), solar cells, recycling, all these things blended together for me. When I heard that Nixon and Brezhnev were getting together for S.A.L.T. talks, I was astonished: i couldn't imagine that scarcity exteded to salt as well. I asked my father on the way to school that morning why salt was so inexpensive , seeing how it's so scarce. He fixed me with an odd little look, and then said that there was plenty of salt to go around. Well, why are they making such a big fuss and having salt talks then?" I asked, exasperated as only a small child can be. I give my father major parent-points for not laughing in my face there and then. Instead, he explained that it stood for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

When I was a child we listened to the radio for our news, and I remember hearing several times about how President Truman was having a Steak Dinner for visiting royalty. I knew steak was pretty scarce in our house so that would have been a nice treat. Of course, now I know he was hosting STATE Dinners for people.

i asked my father what a turkey shoot was. he told me they threw them up in the air and you shoot the down. i belived that.