the world: money

I used to believe the opposite of "expensive" was "relading". I didn't even know what expensive meant. I was just told I couldn't have something because it was expensive, so I said, "No! It's relading!", not knowing what the word meant but wanting that.

When my parents told me that money didn't grow on trees I always thought I'd plant some and prove them wrong. But I always wanted to buy a toy or some candy with any money I was given, so I never tried to plant any money.

I used to believe that adults had as much money as they wanted, a never ending supply. I used to think my mother was so stingy when she wouldn't give me a few dollars to buy lollies from the shop!

My daughter, when she was small, used to think that when you took money to put in the bank, that the bank had seperate piles of everyone's money. So she had her seperate little pile in the bank and when she wanted to take some out, they would have to go to her little pile to get it.

When I was a child, I saw in a cartoon how people put some coins in the earth, and after a certain period a tree who produced money grew on this place. I was amazed about the idea that you could become rich in this way. So I tried the same, but unfortunately without success...

When I was little, I loved to toss money into wishing wells. I believed that when people tossed their money, they all wished for money and thats why there was always so many coins in the well. One day, I decided I would go home and use one of my mother's pots. I placed the pot in the garage along with some water and threw a couple of coins in the water, wishing for more money. Each day, I woke up hoping that my wish would come true, however, the well never grew any money for me. After a while, I gave up. I was puzzled.

When I was young I used to believe that every time you made a purchase, you got change back regardless of the amount of money given. I never could figure out how those candy machines where you put the coin in and turn the knob were smart enough to know how much change to give!

When the State quarters were introduced back in 1999, I thought that the 50 State quarters was used only in a same State (i.e. if a quarter reads "New York" it could be used only in the state of New York or a quarter which reads "Massachusetts" could be only used in the State of Massachusetts.)

When I was little, I used to believe that if I shredded up dollar bills, that I would have more money. After all, there were tons of dollar bill laying around, so didn't that mean I had more bills? WRONG!!

I thought that change was just the clerk giving you back the exact amount of money you'd handed over. I thought it was a ritual formality thing, and I never saw the point.

When I was about six years old I figured out that a penny was worth a cent because it had one cent's worth of copper in it. A nickel had five cents' worth of nickel, a dime had ten cents' worth of silver, etc.

Dollar bills I decided were worth a dollar because the printing process was so expensive.

I used to think that you can get as much money as you like at a bank for free. I could not understand why shops could not give things away for free, but required one to visit a bank first.

I used to believe that whenever you took money out of the bank, you had to put the same amount of money back immediately. What the point of that would be, I have yet to figure out..

When I was 6-7 years old, I used to think that a penny costed a dollar, so I walked to a liquor store (by myself. it was next to my house), with some pennies to buy a starburst. I took a starburst packet and gave it to the cashier guy with my pennies, but he said it wasn't enough. I was really bummed out.

When I was really little (like 5 or so), I used to believe that the beaver on the Canadian 5 cent coin was a bonnett - I took me a few years to figure out that it was actually a beaver. How silly is that?

I told my four year old daughter that the picture of George Washington on the dollar bill was her baby picture. So far she still believes it and will tell anyone wheneve she sees a dollar.

For the longest time (maybe until I was 10 or 11) I could have sworn that there was a 3 dollar bill. I thought I had remembered seeing one and then I never saw one again. I don't know why or where I thought I saw this, but it stuck with me.