the world

When I was little, I had an aunt who lived on Long Island. All I knew about Long Island is that it was "far away" (according to my parents!) from Boston and that being an island it must be across the water somewhere.

With this information in hand, I looked at the map in my Charlie Brown Encyclopedia and determined that Long Island was located in the U.S.S.R. When my friends came over I would whip out the trusty Peanuts atlas and regal them with tales of Aunt Nina in "Long Island, United States S.R."

When I was 9 we went to New York to visit her and I finally realized that Long Island and the U.S.S.R. were not one and the same. But only because we took a bus to get there and didn't go over the ocean.

I used to think that Ohio(the state I was born and still live in)Was the only place on Earth, then I got a puzzle of the United States, and thought the U.S. was the only place on Earth.

I had a very unrealistic sense of distance when I was about 4 or 5. Our house was overlooking a small field, and at the other side you could see the roof of a white house. I was absolutely convinced that this was my grandfathers house, which was actually a five hour drive away... Hey, they were both big and white! I refused to believe the boy next door (seven years older, always knew best...) when he claimed this was impossible.

When I was a kid, I thougt Moscwa was the big building behind the shopping center were i lived. Becuase everytime my dad went to Moscwa, he drove that way. When i told him what i belived, he coudn't stop laughing and told me that Moscwa was in a other country. I was so diasppointed!!

i used to think that Nassar Hussein(the captain of the England cricket team) and Saddam Hussein were the same person.

i used to think that groucho marx and karl marx were brothers.

One day I accidentally swallowed a penny (I don't know how). This didn't upset me until my aunt said my cousin swallowed a dime and because of that, she was 10x more valuable than me!

I used to believe when I was young that Poland was made entirely of candy.

My nephew Matthew used to believe that the catcher from the Mets Mike Piazza, was named MikeEazza, it was th cutess thing ever.

Whenever there would be a car sale and there would be showlights in the sky, I thought that that was where Hollywood was. I would get so mad at my dad for not taking me to Hollywood when it was so close that I could see the lights!

as a child,watching the lottery drawings...I didn't realize that you had to buy a ticket...I thought that you just needed to guess each number bofore it was called out ...and then call a phone number if you guessed right. I vividly remember begging my dad to call because I had guessed 5 numbers right!

I was born in the late fifties and went to grade school in the early to mid sixties-

JFK was asassinated in 1963- Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy asassinated in 1968.

I used to believe that all US Presidents died by asassination.

This isn't my own childhood belief, but a good friend of mine's. For some strange reason he developped this belief that if you flew to Australia then the plane turned upside-down, and this would somehow mean that when you got there that gravity would be inverted. He firmly believes that all Australians have to wear magnetic shoes so that they don't fall off the earth, and that some sort of special cling film keeps the sea in place. This friend is now 25 and still firmly believes this, and no matter how much we try and find holes in his theory, he manages to invent a way aorund it.

When check books used to have that thick purple carbon paper in it, my mom would hand it to me to throw away, but make me hold it with the very tips of my finger and thumb. She was very specific that I not to touch it, but wouldn't tell me that she just didn't want me to get ink on me or my clothes, because it might be difficult to get out. She would just say, "You don't want to get it on you, trust me." So I always thought it was something like an acid that would eat away at my skin and was deathly afraid of it. I was in my early 20's before realizing carbon paper was harmless!

I used to believe that other coutries were other planets and you had to travel in a spaceship to go to Africa.

I used to believe that because i was jewish, i wasn't american. What could have contributed to this idea is the fact that i didn't know the national anthem.