the world

When I was young, I used to travel alot by plane, so much so that I thought that the on top of each cloud was a country, because you had to fly up in the air to get to them.

When i was on holiday with my family on Orkney, we went to visit Mae's howe which is some sort of ancient burial mound. Anyway, my parents asked me what it was when we drove past it, and as i had no idea i looked at my brother for a hint. He said it was Nelson's Column, so thinking i was clever i said it to my parents. The fact that ti was a hill and not a column should have given it away for me.needless to say they did laugh and me, and still bring it up if i say something stupid.

When I was little I used to think that the Erie Canal was named that because it was spooky there.

When I was about 5, I went to the grocery store with my mom. I helped her load up the cart with groceries, and when we got to the checkout isle, I begged her to let me have a bag of jumbo gumballs. She wouldn't put them in the cart because she said it would spoil my dinner. Well, I really wanted the gum so I put it in my pocket. We left the store, and a few minutes later, my mom asked me what I was chewing on. She got really mad- which I expected- but to my suprise she took me back in the store and made me apologize to the clerk (who was very sweet about it). I didnt understand why she did that, so I figured that the store wouldn't let you have anything unless it was okay with your mom, and that's why we went through the checkout line, as a sort of inventory process. I didnt get that you used money to pay for groceries until I got to kindergarden.

Because my mum often told me where people were from I believed that the town where my aunty lived was across the street because thats where she 'came from' last time I saw her. This similar principle applied to all my other relatives. There where a lot of towns just outside our house it seems.

i used to think that if i dug too deep into the sand at the beach i would hit china

i used to belive that there was to gremlins in the pool table at my local pub.
i used to go under there and try and get them out because my dad would always blame it on the "BLASTED GEREMLINS" when he missed the ball!

I used to think that Spain was in the sky. Just because everyone who went there went on a plane- and it was pretty much the only place anybody seemed to go to in our neigbourhood!

Back when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK, my left-wing grandad used to say, "When Maggie Thatcher speaks, green slime runs down the walls!" From then on I'd always look very closely at the TV whenever they showed Parliament, looking for the slime. I also worried, especially when I couldn't see it in the House of Commons, that Maggie's devilish influence would bring green slime running down the walls of our house!

When I was 4 years old, there had been a presidential election that year. I had been under the impression that the presidential candidates had to actually run acroos the country, like a running race, and whoever did it the fastest became the next president. I actually believed this until 4 years later, during the next elections. My mom clarified how it really worked.

My older brother and I played a trick on our little brother when he was about 8. We told him that America had adopted Puero Rico as the 51st state. We didn't think he'd fall for it so completely. He believed that for like a month.

I thought suicide was a place near Liverpool, England

My brother once told my sister that in China they skin cats and use them for stockings around Christmas. Its not so funny that she believed him but that she was about sixteen at the time.

I live in Australia and my cousin who is the same age as me lives in Poland. From a very young age i grasped the concept that when it was day here it was night in Poland and vice-versa. In my mind however i believed that our lives worked in perfect unison but in reverse. For example, as i got out of bed, she got into bed. when i ate breakfast, she ate dinner. when i went to school she came home from school etc. The whole idea overwhelmed me but at the same time I remember it gave me a strong feeling of connection to my cousin.

When I was about 5 and just grasping the notion of there being other countries besides England, I somehow became convinced that France was the exact opposite of Germany. I don't know what I thought that meant though!

When I was very young our family drove from Texas to Oklahoma to visit my grandmother who lived in a small community, Rufe. I thought Rufe was the only town in Oklahoma.