politics

When I was very young, I would hear about the "Iron Curtain" and I thought it was a gigantic metal drapery between countries and no one could go through it.

AK

When I was a child we listened to the radio for our news, and I remember hearing several times about how President Truman was having a Steak Dinner for visiting royalty. I knew steak was pretty scarce in our house so that would have been a nice treat. Of course, now I know he was hosting STATE Dinners for people.

MerryMarjie

I recall thinking that the reason the Soviet Union was so evil was that, instead of people choosing their profession like in America, the government decided that for you. (I think this was actually how my dad explained that country to me.)

Darren

While in kindergarten one day, I remember somebody interrupting the class and telling us that Jimmy Carter had been elected president. Shortly after I asked my teacher what a president did and was given a rushed answer, "he runs for stuff...". For the few years following I believed that the president was a marathon runner who did so wearing a suit followed by other suited runners wearing dark sunglasses.

B Lantz

i'm 15 and until a about a month ago i thought the UN (united nations) was just another name for UK (united kingdom).i only found out the truth because this guy from united nations came to talk to us at school.not knowing i asked my fiends "why is it so special that he's from Britain?" They looked at me very strangely and told me (in a voice they would use for toddlers) that i had it all wrong.i was so embarrassed!!!they still sometimes tease me about it.but i'm used to being teased for doing dumb things.

andy (pilot)

Back when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK, my left-wing grandad used to say, "When Maggie Thatcher speaks, green slime runs down the walls!" From then on I'd always look very closely at the TV whenever they showed Parliament, looking for the slime. I also worried, especially when I couldn't see it in the House of Commons, that Maggie's devilish influence would bring green slime running down the walls of our house!

Daisy K

I used to believe that when the race for the presidency was Really a race. The the two candidates ran through each state and the one who got there first, won the state. Whoever had the most states became President. I was 7.

Anon

When I was seven, Watergate was all you heard about on TV. I believed that someone had kidnapped Nixon and was holding him (tied up and gagged) next to a "water gate" which I pictured as a dried up dam. I thought that the kidnappers were going to drown him by opening the water gate. When I heard about payoffs and bribes, this only confirmed my belief.

Anon

I used to think that Abraham Lincoln was the guy from the bible> During Church the priest asked who Abraham was and I said he was our president
a loooooooong time ago!!

Alex

I was 7 during the first Quebec referendum (you know, the first time they were deciding if Quebec should separate from Canada?). My parents let me stay up late to watch the reuslts, and when the 'Non' side won, I jumped up and yelled "Yay! We get to stay in Canada!!"

Part of me thought that the whole province would physically separate and have bridges to the other provinces and the US as the only connecting points.

gerald626

During the '88 presidential elections, when I was 4 years old, I was convinced that the winner was determined through a series of ballroom dancing contests. I had vivid fantasies of Bush dancing awkwardly, and I thought that adults were very strange to choose their leader based on these performances.

Alex

I used to believe that George W. Bush's middle name was Washington, and that he and the first president were somehow one and the same.

not a Bush fan

When I was in the fourth or fifth grade I learned that The Washington Post was considered the authoritative newspaper regarding politics and the government. I thought the paper was in Washington state, not Washington, D.C. I never understood how a newspaper way out west could be considered the authority on the federal government in the northeast. That misunderstanding persisted until I was in high school.

Jon

I used to believe because I was born I Abe Lincoln's birthday I had a better shot at being President.

END

I was very young when the whole WATERGATE situation occurred. I remember hearing things on t.v. and thinking that it had something to do with alligators!

JILL

In Kindergarden, my teacher told us about the presidential race (Ford/Carter) taking place the next day. Imagine my disappointment and utter confusion when I woke-up the next day, turned on the TV, and did not see Ford or Carter racing around a track (a horse track specifically in my mind) to see who wins & becomes President.

JB

When I was little, I used to *honestly* believe that whoever won the Presidential race became the President, and whoever came in second was the Vice President.

I think I got it from the Miss America pageant. You know how, when they get ready to announce the first runner up, they say, "She will take over the title if the winner cannot perform her duties" or something like that? Well, when I found out that if the President died or just couldn't be President anymore, then the VP took over, I figured that the VP must be the "first runner up" for President.

It seemed completely logical to me when I was little, and now, looking back on it, I wonder if it might even work.

Julie

when I was very small Margaret Thatcher was still prime minister of Britain, and I used to think that she and the queen were the same person.

Megan

well, this was actually my mom's belief and is probably not pc, but here is it: when she was a very little girl and growing up in florida, there was still evidence of segregation every where. she would pitch an absolute fit at having to drink out of the 'white' drinking fountain, because it was boring and stupid, and she wanted to drink out of the 'colored' drinking fountain, which surely spouted rainbow water. her mother didn't know what to do with her screaming child wanting rainbow water!

michelle

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