the world

I grew up learning that Alaska and Hawaii were the two newest US ststes, both becoming states in 1959. I never had any trouble realizing that they were real places before they became states. That might have something to do with the fact that they are disconnected form the rest of the US. Later, I learned that before Alaska and Hawaii, New Mexico and Arizona had been the newest states, becoming states in 1912. Then, I somehow envisioned, for quite some time, that before 1912 there had been a giant bottomless hole in the Earth where New Mexico and Arizona were later to come into existence as states.

Leading up to my first visit to a seashore, I envisioned that the beach would be a narrow strip of sand, only about three feet wide. To the landward side of that narrow strip, I thought, soil and vegetation would turn abruptly to pretty much the same as they were at home, a few hundred miles inland. On the seaward edge of the beach, I supposed, there was an abrupt vertical drop into deep sea waters.

There were no such things as practice sessions. Members of any team of any sport just hangs out together and chill. They only play during scheduled competitions.

I remember asking my mom once," Mom,is the statue of Liberty upside down?". She looked at me with loving incredulity. as only a mother can, and said," No, why would you ask that?",to which I answered.." Well,I always hear people saying that they went up to the feet."

She explained that the statue stands on a base,and when people speak of going up to the feet,they mean from the ground to the top of the base.

When I was 6 or 7, my sister showed me a map of the world made of cardboard. When she pointed to Egypt, and she said, "That's Egypt. That's where all the mummies are." For the next few weeks I believed that mummies in Egypt would rise and come and kill everyone.

When my cousin Jess was little, my parents took her out to eat a Pizza Hut. After they were done, Jess goes "Uncle Eddie, (my dad) I'll pay for the meal." Thinking she had some pennies, my dad held out his hand. Instead, she had 5's and 1's in her hand. My dad, shocked, goes "Jess, where did you get that?" And she being only 4, goes "The people just left it on the tables!"

When my uncle got married, he married a lady from Thailand, and for the longest time i thought it was called "Toyland" and me being 5 i bugged my dad to go there.

One time I heard that 1 in 4 people in the world was Chinese. I thought that meant one out of every four. For weeks, I would look around my class of predominantly caucasian students figure out which of them were really Chinese.

I used to think that the U.S. and Great Britain were natural enemies -- I was just the right age when the Bicentennial happened in 1976, and there was a lot of information about Washington fighting those dastardly British.

when I ws about 5 I believed that every place in the world was in the united states. And I also beleived that translvannia and pennslvannia were the in the same place. Then my dad got me a globe for Christmas.

I used to believe that when a ball left the playing field it was out of bounce, meaning it would come to rest. Made understanding the rules tough on the little guy.

when i was four years old i used to believe that our planet earth had thousands and thousands of countries.afer a couple of years, when i got older i relised that earth was not as big as i thought it was. it came as a big surprise to me, i was so dissapointed

I used to believe that College Football was a University in a place called Football. One day, I saw a football game on TV.I asked my brother what it was, and he said it was a college football game. I Thought for years that a football stadium was college.A while later, my brother showed me a picture of a football game he was going to. I said "Your'e going to college?"

I used to think that if you were pregnant and your baby was born in another country, the baby would be of the nationality of that country and you wouldn't be allowed to take the baby home with you (it would be adopted by one of the native citizens).

Up until I was about 9 years old, I thought whenever you paid for something, you could ask the cashier for however much change you wanted. Whenever my mom bought something and got her change, I'd ask her as we were leaving why she didn't ask for more money.

I used to think a tip was a fixed amount of money you were required to give to someone after shopping at their store. When I was little, my friend and I would have a lemonade stand and we put out a paper cup with "Tips: $2" written on it. A woman bought a cup of lemonade from us (for 50 cents). We then started yelling at her because she didn't give us a $2 tip. Then my mother came out and yelled at us.