When I was about 5, I asked my mom if we could go to McDonalds. When she told me that we couldn't that day, because she didn't have any money (as in, cash on her) I burst out crying. When she asked me why I was crying, I sobbed, "How will we ever eat again?!"
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2,715 beliefs in this area
I'm Norwegian, but my family lived in the US when I was a little girl. Norwegian currency is called "kroner" and around the time that we were moving back to Norway (1969) one dollar was about 10 kroner. I didn't know this, I just thought of a dollar as an American unit of money, and a krone as the Norwegian equivalent. Shortly after having moved back, my mom asked me to go to the store and buy a loaf of bread. I was absolutely horrified when the shopkeeper wanted 1,50 (or whatever it was) - the idea that bread cost more than one unit of money was outrageous. When I returned from the store my mom explained it to me. I remember asking her if we were millionaires in kroner - positive that the answer surely would have to be "yes" if we were to continue eating with the food prices I'd just experienced. But her answer was "no", and I felt incredibly poor! (I was 11 at the time, and my family's income was slightly above average.)
Once during a general election a political reporter asked a candidate "How was your campaign?"
I thought that they were asking about the fizzy wine!
Once at the time of a general election I asked my Mum if they had jelly and icecream at the Labour Party?
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I used to think all money paid for goods at shops went to charity.
I used to believe the president of the United States sat upon a throne and ruled like a king. The only difference was his garb-- he wore a suit and tie instead of a robe and a crown.
when I was about 7 we used to go on holiday to North Wales, and one time we stopped at a remote house to ask for directions. When my stepdad got back in the car he said "I can't believe that man's a geordie - what's a geordie doing in the middle of Wales?" and for some reason, from that moment on I thought a geordie was some kind of subversive, international terrorist..... (for those not in the UK a geordie is someone who speaks with a Newcastle accent)
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I was very young when the whole WATERGATE situation occurred. I remember hearing things on t.v. and thinking that it had something to do with alligators!
When I was small, I thought the big red commercial laundry trucks with roof racks full of laundry bags were armored cars transporting money. I wondered if bags of money ever fell off, and if I was lucky enough to find one, would I have to return it.
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i used to believe that places that were North were up in the sky. So I never understood how we drove from Texas to Indiana without going into the sky!
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My friend used to beleive that 'Gun Point' (as in "they were held at gunpoint") was a geographical place and wondered why anyone would ever want to go there!
when I was little, my best friend thought that when people moved, they just switched houses with one another, so when our neigbours moved to denmark, he thougt the new ones came from denmark.
I also remember him telling me that his father had given birth to him, since he was a boy. Mothers only give birth to girls!
As I grew up in Arizona, this seems reasonable. I found a 100 peso coin which someone had dropped while played on the monkey bars or some such thing. I believed the 100 pesos made me wealthy.
I am from Norway, and I have some reletives in Amerika. So, when I was 5 ore 6 I believed that every american was black with big, curly hair and tru ther noses they hade bones! =)
When I was little, I thought east/west was exactly the same as right/left, and if I turned around they would change places...
I used to believe that if you swallowed a penny, it would make you small enough to crawl into the back of the TV, then you'd be on TV. I never swallowed a penny, but I did suck one down my windpipe while trying to 'shrink'.
When I was 5 or 6 years old, I had heard a tale of a swedish kid (called Emil, for those who know about him)that had put a sausage on top of a long stick, to trap some animal. On a high hill near the place I lived, there was an old, almost dead tree standing all alone, with just a few branches in the top. It was quite far away, and so it looked like a stick with something in the top. I, of course, thought it was the stick from the tale, with the sausage on top...
When I was a kid, I had heard that China was on the other side of the world. I lived in a valley, with hills on both sides, and I thought China was on the other side of those hills.
When I was ver young, growing up in Philadelphia, the sugar packets at area restaraunts often featured Independence Hall on them. Visiting Independence Hall on a school field trip, I was surprised to find out that they DIDN'T make sugar there!
I remember the time i found out that people on "the other side of the world" was awake when we were asleep, and vice versa and they had night and we had day, vice versa again. And for me the other side of the world was Australia and japan and all those countries, since I live in Norway.
Then i remember thinking that they must have a really boring life, because all the stores, the schools, and the places were closed at night.
Later i realized that the ones that own the stores and the other places also sleep when the other people in the country sleep... complicated, really =)