places

When I was about 6, I saw a country called "Egypt" in the atlas and thought it was pronounced "Egg-pit." I thought that it was some sort of fantastical land of make-believe, and I asked my parents repeatedly if we could go to Egg-pit. It took them a while to figure out what I was talking about. When they finally did, they took me to the Oriental Institute in Chicago and I was placated.

Kitty Kat

As a tiny kid in the Midwest, I used to overhear the tv newscasters talking about the Mid-East. I was embarrassingly old when I finally realized that they weren't actually talking about Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

propchick

I grew up in Birmingham, England and became interested in the exotic animals of Africa such as lions, monkeys, giraffes, elephants and so on. As a child of 3 or 4 I had no concept of outside the city let alone other countries and continents. Being introduced to these creatures I had to somehow place them satisfactorily in my comprehension of the world. So I worked out that at the end of my street, the part that I was not allowed to play in, there must be a huge wall and on the other side of that wall was Africa and that was where all those exotic animals lived.

Lee, England

When I found out we were moving to "the South" I was upset because I didn't want to live on a houseboat in the bayou and have to fight off alligators and mosquitos.

That's okay, though, for when we got there, many kids asked me what it was like living in Arizona in Teepees without electricity or paved roads.

Desert Rat turned Southern Belle

I used to belive that Mississippi was a person. Mrs. Sippi.

Dunno

When I was little, I had an aunt who lived on Long Island. All I knew about Long Island is that it was "far away" (according to my parents!) from Boston and that being an island it must be across the water somewhere.

With this information in hand, I looked at the map in my Charlie Brown Encyclopedia and determined that Long Island was located in the U.S.S.R. When my friends came over I would whip out the trusty Peanuts atlas and regal them with tales of Aunt Nina in "Long Island, United States S.R."

When I was 9 we went to New York to visit her and I finally realized that Long Island and the U.S.S.R. were not one and the same. But only because we took a bus to get there and didn't go over the ocean.

Lisa in New England, United States S.R.

Haha, I used to believe (2 or 3 years ago) that Las Vegas was LOST Vegas and that it couldn't be found and it was shrouded in mist!

Sam

When I was younger, I had a geography problem. I believed that Europe was just above Canada. Except Italy, of course. In my mind that was sticking off the side of Russia.

geographically challenged

I used to think the world wasn't round like a globe but more like a spherical cork screw, think helter-skelter or corkscrew slide.

My young mind couldn't manage the idea of people standing upside down on a ball, and having this corkscrew arrangement made perfect sense.

Mike Hargreaves

I used to believe that the whole country was like a huge skyscraper with different floors because when we would go visit my grandparents in New Jersey, my parents would say that we are "going up" to New Jersey and when my grandparents were coming here to Tennessee that they were "coming down."

Chelsea

When I was a little kid, I was always fascinated with the globe at my grandmother's house. I believed that the Netherlands was Never-never land, from Peter Pan.

Jessica

When I was little my mom would always say if California sunk Puerto Rico would become the 50th state. I used to believe that meant that Puerto Rico would be picked up and moved to where California was.

Leida

when I was a kid and we went to visit our grandparents in a place called easingwold, I thought it was easingworld and was amazing we didnt have to take a rocket to get there

Anon

My grandmother was born in Transylvania. When I was young and she told me stories about life there, I used to think that that was a state next to Pennsylvania!

Anon

I used to believe that everyone had a twin somewhere in the world living the same exact life you were living, since there just seemed to be too many people for the amount of personalities.

LB

when i was 2 or 3, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins were always talking about going to Miami. I thought they said "My Ami" so i always wondered why I didn't have my own "ami" to go to.

amy

I used to believe that the world is a wonderful place full of great people, a world where good people are rewarded for being honest and gentle, a world where I could be happy.

Kamil

When I was little I wanted to be an explorer. I figured 2D maps of the world were only showing half the Earth, because obviously the Earth is round, and that the other half hadn't been mapped yet. I wanted to be someone that discovered the other half of the Earth.

Anon

i used to believe that north meant up and south meant down. this resulted in the belief that oklahoma was actually really far above texas... like it was stacked. why else would you use planes?

cameron

I used to believe that all the roads of the same name were part of the same road. So if you stayed on Main St. in one city you would eventually continue onto Main St in the next city, and the next one and the next one and so on.

Jonah