places

I am from a small town in a small county full of small towns in the Midwest of the United States. When I was quite young, our trips away from that small town were adventures of magic and grandeur as far as I knew. Another small town, about half the size of my hometown, was about fifteen minutes away, and we passed through it on our way to my grandparents' house and to the nearest malls. This town was called Wayland. However, for many years, I believed this town was called Whale-land, and I believed that whales lived there. For this reason, I always wanted to visit Whale-land, but we never stopped (because there was nothing there but people's homes, a restaurant, and a gas station; I wanted to see the whales.)

After my parents' divorce, my mother moved to Wayland and I live there when I am with her. Now I know there are no whales, but I do love this town.

Andy H.

I used to believe my Dad when he told me that many people that lived in our Canadian capital city Ottawa couldn't say "Ottawa" so they relocated to "Oshawa"... both cities are in Ontario.

Yup. I believed it.

Lisa

I used to believe that when I took a plane and was going to another country, that I was actually going out to space and the country was on another planet.

Morgan

When I was very little my parents travelled all around Canada with me (we visited every province and territory that existed at the time, except for the Yukon and Prince Edward Island).

We went to Halifax just after the first really warm snap of the spring had melted all the snow, and everything that had been in the snow all winter was now on the sidewalk. My mother commented on the mess, and asked me if I knew why there were poops all over the place.

Maybe she expected me to say "dogs left them and people didn't clean up", or "they were frozen in the snow all winter". But with my head full of new knowledge about Canada's east coast, I theorized that "the lobsters must have done it!"

Brenda

I used to think that the huge clock tower of the local university was the London Tower with the Big Ben! I used to believe this until I was like 8 or 9. My mother enlightened me when I asked how could we see Big Ben from the other side of the Atlantic!

Scandia

When I was little, I thought that Mississippi was a real person. Ithought she was called Ms. Issippi and she was the queen of her country. I thought that she had to go to war with Norway and I called it The Battle of Mississippi. I thought that Norway was a desert like Arizona and that there were big floaty monsters in the caves. You don't want to know the dreams I had on the topic.

Mr. Issippi

I used to believe that only old, retired people like my grandparents lived in Florida. I was very surprised to find out they had schools there.

me again

I used to think that Holland was an island near Australia. But when in an anime a girl traveled by train from France to Holland, I was enlightened. Not to mention sort of surprised. Holland was portrayed as so cute, it seemed too exotic to be located other than in Oceania.

Scandia

As I loved geography and maps as a small kid, I would look through the pre-Interstate System maps of the United States (1950s). For many years I would examine Washington, D. C. metro maps. At the same time, I looked all over Washington State trying to figure out where Washington, D. C. was. It HAD to be near Seattle?
Washington, D. C. had U.S. 50 running near it but couldn't for the life of me find U.S.50 on the Washington State maps or in the Tacoma-Seattle area. There
was New York, New York, so there had to be a Washington, D. C., Washington . . . right?

Anon

i used 2 belive that when u went 2 mexio u will go 2 a different planet.

frankie

When I was young, my aunt lived in a small northern Canadian town called Cassiar. Having learned a bit of world geography by looking at a globe with my dad, I thought she lived in Madagascar.

Marlo

I once had a friend who, presumably because there are so many American movies on TV, seemed convinced that everything he saw on TV was in America. There was a rugby match on one day, and he said "That rugby's coming from Scotland. Scotland's in America". To which his Dad answered "Everything's in America as far as he's concerned".

Alan, Sheffield, UK

When I was 5 years old and living in Texas, my mom and I flew to Michigan to visit family on a regular basis. I had trouble with the terms "north" and "up there".
At the time I thought that to get to Michigan, the airplane had to fly straight up, like a super elevator taking us to a floor way up on a high rise. I spent some time trying to figure out how far away Michigan really was if each state had it's own layer. I'm now a social studies teacher and have to giggle when I think about my early impressions of US geography.

Christi

i used to believe that spain was on a different planet

shannon cannan

I used to believe the world map was only one half of the planet. One day i said to my brother "when i grow up, im gonna discover the other half! ^_^'

S.O.

I used to think that the third world was a different planet. I imagined what it would be like to travel between the earth and the third world. I could never figure out where the second world was.

the renus