the world

I used to think that, since things were so much cheaper when my dad was a kid, and even cheaper when his dad was a kid, then everything must have been free around the early 1800s.

I used to believe that other culture wore their indigenous outfits ALL THE TIME, like the British all wore Robin Hood outfits and suits of armor, and the Chinese always wore silk robes, and that Indians always wore feather hats. If they didn't wear these things they would become Americans and lose their accents.

I also believed that other countries made up languages to confuse us and all really spoke English, but didn't like us so they made it up. I still think this one a lot!

I overheard a little boy talking with his dad in a bookstore:

"Dad, are England and Europe the same thing?"

This is a common misconception in suburban New Jersey.

i used to think the definition of being rich was having a room full of money that reached up to your knees. i didn't take into account if the room was really big of the money was pennies or hundred dollar bills. This was shortly after i learned that having four dollars did not make me rich.

I used to believe that I would be a millionaire

I used to live in Hawaii while my extended family lived in Utah. We would find ourselves visiting them often, so I thought the entire continental United States was called "Utah."

When I was young, I believed that Abe Lincoln had a tail.
The reason for this is perfectly logical (or it was at the time). When you flip a coin you say "Heads or tails!", right? So I figured out that while the front half of the penny depicted Lincoln's head, the back half was a picture of his tail.

When I was small my mom went to Vegas all the time. I thought it was the city made out of gold in the sky, because I would see the plan take off and not land. :)

My dad told me that "no money down" meant that if you dropped your money, the store would get to keep it, like as in finders-keepers.

Someone gave me a dollar when I was little, and I sat in the living room playing with it. I asked my ma if it was true that there were four quarters in a dollar, and she told me that I was correct.

I tore the dollar in half and tried to shake the quarters out, as if dollar bills were envelopes for quarters.

I used to think that there was a 'little man' inside cash machines, who counted the money and pushed it out. When a machine was out of order, it was because 'the man was having his dinner, having a sleep'etc

My dad told me (with a straight face) when I was nine that Mt. Rushmore was made in the same way as the Grand Canyon (i.e. millions of years of water carving through stone). For four years I believed him, speaking to no one about it and wondering why the world wasn't abuzz with excitement and awe that a constant rush of water could eventually carve out exact facial replicas of four of America's greatest historical figures. I thought maybe it had been discussed and accepted by people before I was born and no one therefore no one brought up the wonder of it anymore. When I was 13 I finally asked my mom didn't she find the whole thing amazing and she told me the (less than amazing) truth.

i used to believe that the battle of Hastings happened in a field at the edge of our village (which is in Somerset)

I was born in Brooklyn NY. Until I was 9 and moved upstate, I thought the entire state of NY consisted of the 5 boroughs (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island).

Apparently many people still believe this, as they are shocked when I tell them I live in the mountains of NY...

We lived near a huge sports stadium in Melbourne (the M.C.G) and back in the day giant plastic trumpet-type horns were popular in the crowd. When the footy was on and the wind was travelling in the right direction we could hear the crowd going mental and blowing these horns each time someone kicked a goal. My sister and I firmly believed they were trying to contact us, we would spend hours on the porch yelling at them full volume until we heard the horns sound, then we'd get scared and run inside. About a minute later we'd overcome our fear and resume yelling. This occurred every Friday night for six months of the year, much to our parents dismay.

After one trip to the US side of Niagara Falls, where everyone I saw was Black, I assumed that the entire United States population was composed of Black people.