places

I used to believe South Africa was a general term for the southern area of the continent of Africa. I never realized it was a country.

Matt Thiel

When I was 6 or so, my mom told me she was going on a business trip to Seattle. I thought she meant she was going to see a friend named Attle (i.e., "see Attle"). She came back and was telling me about her hotel room. When she mentioned there was only one bed, I asked, "so where did Attle sleep?" She laughed at me.

Matt

I believed that the coliseum where basketball games were played was full of water and it was where people would go to fish from up in the rafters. I was kinda disappointed to find out what it really was.

Anon

As a child I enjoyed watching a tape of an educational special on dinosaurs. One line in the show went, "Dinosaur bones have been discovered in every continent except Antarctica." I asked my parents what "Antarctica" meant, and they (who must have misunderstood me, since I can't imagine them telling me this on purpose) said that it meant a place where there were many houses and buildings. Even years later, when I knew what the continent of Antarctica was, I still had this image of houses and buildings whenever I watched the tape and heard that line.

Jason from Illinois

I was convinced that Indians had dug the Grand Canyon.

Tom Sackett

I was told that on the exact opposite side of the world was someone who looked and acted just like me. In fact, my family, my house, and the whole town were replicated and maybe doing the exact same things as we were. It made me wonder quite a bit.

Brooke

When I was little my grandpa would always call me "Joshy-Washy from Megatoshi." In high school I remember going through my Freshman year Geography text looking in the Mediterranean Sea for the island of Megatoshi.

Josh

Once, when my we were driving across the country, my parents were talking about visiting Wisconsin. I thought they were talking about visiting a woman named Miss Consin. And I wondered if she was a friend of Mrs. Sippi.

Kdees

My home town in New Zealand was right at the base of 8260ft Mt Egmont; we looked straight out our window at it, and in a straight line the summit was probably only about 15 miles away. I remember always thinking that the whole world was just over the other side of the mountain.

Dave Mellow

My Dad was a traveling salesman and as a boy he would take me on business trips during summer vacation. In the 1950's freeway system was expanding throughout California and they had markings for the roads that ran along side the freeways. They were marked as "Frontage Rd.". I remember getting on the interstate in L.A. and seeing "Frontage Rd." and then all the way to San Franciso seeing "Frontage Rd.". I thouht "Frontage Rd." was the longest street in California.

Rod

When I was nine we travelled to Germany from California. I knew that Germany was on the other side of the world. Somehow I imagined that everything would be upside down, and that we'd be hanging upside down. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed when we landed in Germany and everything was right-side-up!!

Ellen

When I was 9 we moved from Utah to California. I truly thought we were moving to a foreign country. Our first weekend there we went to San Francisco and saw all the "flower children" on the street corners and I knew for sure it was another country.

LaughNSing

When I was younger I belived that Kansas was in black and white because of the movie The Wizard of OZ!!!!

Becky

I grew up in Hawaii, and was pretty sure that our country, the United States, was the fiftieth state

Anon

When I was four years old, my parents took a vacation to the Grand Canyon. From their description, I invisioned it to be an inky black hole in the middle of a motel parking lot. A few years later when I was old enough, we traveled there. Imagine my surprise when I saw that big hole in the ground for myself.

Geography Girl

When I was 5, we drove from California to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents. My parents must've shown me where we were going on a map, and I saw that the land ended near there, because I assumed that when we got there, the land would just drop off right after their house. I remember looking down the street to see where the end was when we got there.

Laurel

When I was very young, I'd heard of Hong Kong, either in a movie or on the news. I logically believed that this must be the place that King Kong was from.

Jim

when I was about 3, I had just learned to read and I found an ashtray that said "Costa Rica" on it. I told everyone that "Costa Rica" was Spanish for "Puerto Rico". Dunno how I made that connection...

Zoe