politics

When I was little and used to watch the world news, I thought that Peter Jennings was the President.

Kelly Grace

I am 52 now (2007) so I grew up in the cold war. For many years, I believed that the nuclear holocaust was at hand, so much so that I would hear thunder and think it was a nuclear attack. I suppose the constant news on the subject was a contributor. I finally outgrew it.

John Price

My parents told me when I was little that we were going voting, I miss heard and thought they said boating. I was gravely disappointed when I figured out I miss heard.

K

i used to think huge sattelite poles that were as tall as bulidlings was were the president wold sit and have his meetings.

Erin

I used to believe that the state seal (you know, the picture on the state flag) was an actual animal seal! I believed that every state had an animal seal at the state capitol! I believed this until I was in 7th grade.

Lauren Carroll

I belived that in order to be President you had to run a race and I'd alaways want to see the race but no one would Know what I was talking about.

Anon

This is not my belief. This is one of my frends. He thought that when a Preadent dies, They go to The United Stats of Heven. He also thougt that Gorge Bush was dead. I said "He not dead. He still at the White House. Im going their soon."

He took it the wrong way and said "You Going To DIE?

Mr.GH

I once wrote to John Major and asked if he would be my penpal. I really believed he had nothing better to do! I thought it could be a nice hobby for him.

Rebekah

When someone mentioned the word 'politician', I always pictured people who worked in washington D.C. who always wore red white and blue dress suits, and red white and blue tophats. I always believed that politicians carried a little american flag with them too.

God Bless America

When I was young, I was driving in the car with my father, and they were talking about politics on the radio. The words "Democrat" and "Republicans" kept coming up, and I asked my dad what the difference was. His response was, "Well, last year they elected a Democrat. In a few years they'll get sick of him and elect a Republican. Then the same thing will happen and they'll elect a Democrat again." This was my understanding of the U.S. political system until around my senior year in high school, when I discovered that it was a bit more complex than that. As my knowledge of politics grew, however, I came to realize that my dad had pretty much summed things up pretty accurately.

Anon

I grew up in West-Berlin, when is still was in the middle of Communist territory. Passing the border by car to transit through East-Germany (for a holiday, typically) took hours and the controls were harsh, with dogs and seaches and lots of paperwork and lots of questions.
I thought the reason was fighting highway robbery and always felt uneasy when we were visiting countries like Denmark of Switzerland where you wouldn't be harrassed for hours when entering. I thought they were irresponsible and dangerous places!

Anon

I always thought that the president was the richest man in the world.

Kevin

I haven't seen this variation on the Watergate theme yet:

Like a lot of the others here who were around six or seven years old during Watergate, I had a very literal interpretation about some kind of "Water Gate" that was broken, clogged or overflowing in some way. I put that together with all the "bugs" I kept hearing about and thought that if you turned on a sink faucet bugs would come pouring out. I only remember being afraid of the faucets for a day or two (it was probably only an hour, lol!) before my parents straightened it all out for me but I I still think about it every time I hear the word Watergate.

JS

When I was four, I got into an argument with my uncle. He said that the vice president was Spiro Agnew. I said it was Uncle Sam.

Matt