places

I used to believe that we lived on the inside of the world, and that aeroplanes could just fly in a straight line across the middle to get from place to place

Cawrie

My grandmother used to live in a small town in northern California named McCloud. Because of my Dad's work schedule, the only time we could make the trip to visit her was in the wintertime. The town is up in the mountains, and we'd drive past lots of snow and fog to get there. I was sure we were actually driving up into the clouds to visit her. There was always about 8 feet of snow on the ground, which fit with my notion that clouds were really cold. And after all, the town was even named McCloud!

ZCam

When about five or so, I believed the Earth was round, but that everyone had to live around the North Pole, otherwise we'd all fall off.

Also, since orange was my favorite color, I believed the North Pole looked orange from space.

Chris

I used to think that because there was a state called Washington, there was also a state called Dryington.

Jasonchic

There are a couple of islands off the coast by the beach where my family vacationed in Maine. I assumed they were England for many years.
My brother came to the same conclusion independently, and at one point informed us that Lake Michigan was bigger than the Atlantic Ocean, since you could see the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

Wisconsin girl

I used to think that the sky had giant letters saying "Massachusetts" over that state like the map had it. Like, over the Atlantic Ocean had that written in the sky over it. *shakes head*

Kelly

I used to believe that names of places, such as towns and counties, were actually printed on the groud (Such as in fields), as they are on road atlases and maps.

I remember going down to London one day and when we got close on the motorway i was looking in the fields for

'LONDON'

to be printed out in them with big black letters.

but i never did see it :-( lol

RobbieMc

RobbieMc

well this is kind of embarassing. i live in texas and i have heard that that everythings bigger in texas and texas woman have big hair (i used alot of hair spray at age four)
i thought women in texas,especially cow girls,were sopposed to have big hair.well one time i was at the grocery store with my mom. we were geting our film back and i was siting on the counter while my mom was talking to the lady.i asked the lady if she was from texas and when she said yes i got mad. she didn't have big hair.well....i stood up on the counter yelled "but you dont have BIG hair!!! you have to!!!" an i smaked the lady on the head. my mom turned bright red yanked me of of the counter an left the store with out our film and groceries

amanda

I'm not sure why, but once, in kindergarten, a boy told me about a horrible place called "Pencilvania" . Never looking at a map of the U.S and reading the states' names, I thought Pecilvania was in Europe. Then, he told me that I was taking a vacation there, and that I would die. ( Huh? ) I got really upset because I thought my family would be attacked by flying, orange pencils.

ElizaBethMarie, Cali

My sister convinced my niece that there was a bridge that went from California to Hawaii, built out of old sunken battle ships. My niece was in her twenties at the time. Now she's a lawyer. (heheheh)

Unc

Until I was about 9 or 10, I truly believed Mount Rushmore was a natural phenomenon. Nobody told me it was. I just assumed the tourist attraction was a really big coincidence somehow involving the process of "erosion." (My dad was a geologist.) At some point in elementary school my teacher set me straight, but only after a lengthy and highly emotional discussion between us, during which I INSISTED in front of all the other kids that those presidential faces had randomly appeared over thousands of years of wind and rain pounding against the mountainside. I slinked home in humiliation afterwards. And I've never liked science since.

Ellen

I was born in New York. We were one of the few Anglo families in our neighborhood; most of our neighbors were from Puerto Rico. We left and moved to the Midwest when I was 4. Until I was in my teens, I kept my misunderstanding of what my parents had told me about the location of Puerto Rico; I thought it was right off the coast of New York City.

Confused Guy.

I used to believe that everyone in Louisiana ate lasagna and nothing but lasagna. I thought that the state was purposely shaped to look like a piece of lasagna, with a big crinkly noodle coming out the side. I never called it "Louisiana," only "the lasagna state" (in a disgusted voice). I hated lasagna and vowed never to go there.

Rebecca

I always assumed that since so many products are tagged with "Made in China" that if I were to go to China, the country would be just one big factory.

Anon

I used to think that a Visa credit card was what one needed to be admitted to countries that "require a visa".

Stephanie

In preschool my 2 BFFs and i would dig in the sand box because we thought there was a magical world where there was no adults and every single cartoon people like Mickey Mouse and Minnie would be there and you could wish for anything you wanted and no one would notice you were gone

Alex

Until yesterday, I used to believe New York City was not in the state of New york (you know, like Washington DC is not in Washington state), but in New Jersey. I´m not from the US, if that makes it any better....

joana

I have no idea why, but I used to believe that London was whole different country than Great Britain and existed in somewhere near Paris.

Lissie

When the Soviet Union broke up, I was six years old and thought that an earthquake had cracked the earth at the new international borders and the people there had decided to form new countries because of these new natural boundaries.

Darren

I grew up near Worcester, MA, USA. I knew of that city as Wuster, because I heard people say it that way. When I saw Worcester on highway signs, I thought it was a different city, pronounced the way it's spelt. I was shocked to learn they were one and the same.

Darren