the world

I used to believe that Gunpoint was a place. On the news, it always seemed to be addressed as one. "This man is held, at Gunpoint.", "Three hostages are being held, at Gunpoint." I mean come on, I was just a little kid, it seems like a pretty logical assumption.

When I was about 7 I thought checks were special bills with no predetermined value. When you wanted to pay for something, you could turn a check into a bill for the specific amount of money you were paying by writing the amount on it. Very convenient, wasn't it? But then I thought about the person receiving the check and wondered if they were ever going to find a use for that specific amount of money.

i use to bellieve dat america waz da only country in da world

I used to believe that when the race for the presidency was Really a race. The the two candidates ran through each state and the one who got there first, won the state. Whoever had the most states became President. I was 7.

when I saw a skiing event on TV, I figured that it must have taken place on a big cloud because of the white stuff everywhere. I don't know how old I was then, but I probably had not seen much snow until then.
So when I was outside and the sky was cloudy, I always tried to spot if someone was skiing down the cloud hills.

no success. ever.

My mother told me that money was the dirtiest thing around. I decided it was because people kept it in their bums.

That belief lingered and when I was a cashier in HS I almost vomitted when someone handed me a damp dollar bill.

I thought that people in foreign countries dressed in their native costumes all the time, like German's in Leiderhosen, and Dutch in wooden shoes, and Russians in big furry hats. I guess those filmstrips we watched in grade school were REALLY old.

I used to believe…

that each country was a different planet

When I was a child I used to believe that everyone had an "ami". I used to hear people talk about "my-ami" (Miami) in Florida. I used to wonder where my ami was. I knew other people's amis were in Florida but where was my ami?

When I was little, from three to eight years old. I thought we could get as much money as you want from an Automatic Teller Machine. My mum kept on trying to explain to me that "Money doesn't grow in the bank" to me and "Money doesn't grow in trees" to my younger brother and therefore we can only take a limited amount of money from the bank. I slowly began to realise a few years later that my family can only withdraw the money my dad earned from the bank.

I used to believe that each state of the United States was a living being---like a different breed of animal. I used to think that I might see a Florida walking down the street or a Mississippi driving a car on the interstate.

I used to believe that there were only two races in the world, black and white. I thought until I was like 11 or 12 that Chinese people were just white people with different eyes because the skin was more or less the same color to me. And someone told me that it was the constant wind that caused that. After watching cartoons like Aladdin I also thought Arabic people could find genies and have wishes and stuff, and that he was actually Italian.
And I also thought Irish people were all leprachauns. And that the whole world was one religion.

When I was a kid, I used to believe that when adults voted, they all went out into a big field and raised their hands when someone called out the name of who they were voting for, like in class.

well, this was actually my mom's belief and is probably not pc, but here is it: when she was a very little girl and growing up in florida, there was still evidence of segregation every where. she would pitch an absolute fit at having to drink out of the 'white' drinking fountain, because it was boring and stupid, and she wanted to drink out of the 'colored' drinking fountain, which surely spouted rainbow water. her mother didn't know what to do with her screaming child wanting rainbow water!

My father is an avid republican. When I was in preschool, we'd watch the news together, and whenever a picture of Bill Clinton came up, he'd point and say "That's the wicked wizard of the East. He kidnaps children."

I proceeded to go to my preschool class and warn all my friends about this evil wizard.

Growing up in Germany, I used to believe that all Americans were black. That is probably because I assumed every white person I saw was German. Only when I saw a black person did it occurr to me it might be a foreigner, and those were mostly Americans in that region.

With the help of American movies and TV series, I later adjusted this belief. About half of the Americans must be black and the other half white. That seemed only fair to me. I was very surprised when I found out the real percentage in school.