the world

I was about 8 years old in Little League baseball, with some reasonable skill at the game but a few gaps in my understanding of how it was played. I'll never forget the humiliation I experienced one day during a game where I'd gotten on base. Our team was below average and often I'd get on base but the next batters would get out before I could make it home. So there's the day--I'm on 3rd base, the batter hits a line drive and I tear off for home. I beat the 2nd baseman's throw and scored. I was thrilled. "I got a home run!" The other kids that jumped up to congratulate me on making it home, then sneered and laughed at me for what I said. "No, you didn't make a home run," I was condescendingly informed. "But I ran to home and made it! Why isn't that a home run?" One kid took pity on me and explained how I'd have to run all the way around the bases after hitting the ball, in one shot. THAT is a home run. I didn't want to believe him, because I felt so great about reaching home base. When my father finally told me the same thing, I sadly realized the truth of it. We won that day. But I wouldn't be happy until the next season when I finally hit a "real" home run. ;-)

When I was a kid, I used to believe the government (all) were always good people who wanted to do good and improve life for everyone.

... then I learned about dictators and false promises from democratic leaders.

Up until I was around 7 or 8, I believed that one day, without warning, my family would just lose all our money and become homeless. I kept a secret stash of tinfoil and anything spray-painted gold/silver so that we would have something to sell to pay for food, clothes, etc. when this happened. I believed that anything that LOOKED like silver and gold, must be silver and gold, and therefore must be valuable.

I used to be scared of travelling. Since I live in Canada I thought you were safe. But I was terrified to go to Antartica. Why? I thought you would fall off since it was at the bottom of the globe. And that you would keep falling down in space.

i used to think that a'quarterback' was some guy who ran around with a giant quarter on his back! i was dumb

When I was little I believed that all you had to write on the top line of a check was what you wanted the money for, and you would get it. So if I wrote "swimming pool" than I would get it.

One time during the presidential race between George Bush and Al Gore, my friend's parents asked her, "who do you think will win the election?" She said, "I vote for George Washington! I vote for George Washington!" (she was five at the time)

There are these small brown cone-shaped buildings that I can see whenever driving /riding down the highway, and I always thought there were dinosaurs in there. I had a good reason though. When I was maybe 2 or 3, I remember going to a dinosaur exhibit, and I remember the building being the same shape (brown cone).

I used to think the world wasn't round like a globe but more like a spherical cork screw, think helter-skelter or corkscrew slide.

My young mind couldn't manage the idea of people standing upside down on a ball, and having this corkscrew arrangement made perfect sense.

I used to believe there were 52 states. I thought Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia were states.

i used to beleive that the world was round but we lived on the inside of it. i thought if u jumped to high then u would fall to the other side of the earth. and the stars were city lights from the other cities around the world.

When I was little, I believed that banks were places where anyone could go in and take some money for free.

When I was really little and watching the Olympics opening cerimonies (sp?) for the first time, my mother explained to me that flame had been carried by an athlete on all continents. I pictured some poor runner carrying the torch all the way across his or her continent, and also thought they had to use foot-powered paddle-boats (like the kind we rented at City Park Lake) to get it across the oceans. It never occured to me to wonder how they ever started the the Olympics on time. I thought that was why it was only every 4 years.

I used to belive that at a "hole in the wall" bank there was a woman or man standing behind the wall pushing money through!

I used to think Miami was a state. I found out last week and I'm 15

I thought that Florida wasn't connected to the United States, like Hawaii. I never caught on that people drove there in their cars and when I did I just suspected that there was a really long bridge. I found out a couple of months ago that it is connected and I'm almost 15.