politics

While growing up in the late 70s and 80s, my father always referred to Communists as "Communist Bastards". He never said the first word without the other. So, in elementary school when we were talking about world history one day, I remember raising my hand and answering, "Because the Communist Bastards ..." It was pretty embarrassing.

Jennifer Volz

The (current) Iraq war started when I was about 8. I wrote a letter to the PM of Australia, advising him "stop being friends" with George Bush because I thought he was a bad influence, and was worried Australia would join the invasion.

I seriously believed that he would take my advice!

Anon

At daycare when I was 6, the teachers would leave crackers out on a picnic table in a big bowl for our snack. Seagulls would always fly down, chase us away from the bowl and eat all the crackers. I used to always hear my parents talking about Saddam Hussein. He seemed like a "bad guy" and I thought the seagulls were his army, almost like the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys. I thought that he'd sent them to our daycare steal our snack.

Jane

When I was little I used to believe everything the government does is right and for the good of everyone.

Rob

Because they had the same initials, I used to get Winston Churchill and Wilt Chamberlain (a tall, African-American basketball player) mixed up.

Megan

when was little i used to believe that if you won the grand national you would become prime minister

Anon

I used to believe that Democrats were some sort of demon-cat hybrid. My dad is a Republican and was always talking about these evil "Democrat" creatures. I knew that the president (Bill Clinton at the time) was a Democrat, and so i figured he was their leader. I wondered why people would ever vote for such bad, man-eating demon-cats. I was mystified for ages, and finally, in about 6th grade, i realized that they were humans, and maybe not so evil.

Laura

I thought president's state of the union speech was about the best state in the union. I would listen to the speech hoping Illinois would be named number one. After I figured out what the speech was about, I never listened again.

Steve Pribish

I used to think that -then- president Jimmy Carter had always been the president and always would be. Kinda like a family member.

Syncline

I was 6 in 1974. I thought President Nixon was in trouble for stealings scotch tape. I kept imagining him climbing up my parents' fire escape and looking for scotch tape in my parents' room.

Mike O

I used to worry that the presidential candidate my parents didn't vote for won, the world would end. Luckily it wasn't put to the test until I had some sence knocked into me.

El Joven

I used to think that Margeret Thatcher was married to Ronald Reagan, because they were always on tv together!

Nat

In 7th grade we were learning about annexing. I wanted to be a politician and show the U.S. that Canada was tough and not to be messed with by taking over Maine. After all, it was nice and small and close to the border. What we would do would be have secret meetings where we would tell people to move there, then wait 18 years so they could have kids who would be of legal age to vote too, and then one of them would make a bill or something proposing that Maine join Canada and then all the Canadians there that would vote yes. I still, kind of, think it would work...

a proud canadian

The Spanish word for president is "Presidente". I have a Mexican origin. When they told me Vicente Fox was the president of Mexico, I thougt that his name was Fox and that both Presidente and Vicente were titles. I used to boast to my school partners that Fox was Presidente AND Vicente of Mexico xD

Iñaki

I used to believe that the Queen and Margaret Thatcher were best friends and imagined them going to each others house for tea.

Zoe Moakes

I used to think that everyone in the country got a turn at being President. I was scared because I didn't want that kind of responsibility or public attention.

Laith

In 1986, when I was 5 there were summit talks ("Gipfeltreffen" in German) between Reagan and Gorbatchev in Reykjavík, Iceland. I understood that it was an island far off and just pictured the two heads of government climbing up that high mountain (like I knew in the Alps) with a palm tree on it to have a very serious conversation on top of it. I thought it was useful because everyone could run down the other way if they didn't like each other. It took me a while to understand that such talks didn't need to be on islands nor mountains.

SKH

Back in the mid 90's, when I was about 10, I used to believe that I was a prisoner in a digital world. I used to feel that beyond this reality was a utopia, and that I had broken the laws of that utopia and was imprisoned in a digital reality that was meant to continually punish me until I had learned my lesson, whatever it may be.

David

When I was younger I used to believe that Margaret Thatcher was a male ballet dancer with a beard. Not unlike "Bullet" Baxter from Grange Hill.

Banky Edwards

I use to think that the prime minister would sit down at a big table and name everything so we would know what to call it.

raewyn (australia)