What stupid thing did you believe?

[Soubriquet]

For a long time, I honestly believed money laundering was literally washing money in a washing machine and I wondered why it was so bad

Oil refineries! I used to work at one, doing the accounts far too many years ago when I was a temp.

that was to @AWiseWomanOnceSaidFuckThisShit

I was struggling to undo a bolt and a family member suggested using a pair of mole grips. “What have mole catching gloves got to do with undoing this?” I scoffed at him. I was 30.

That bin men only worked one day a week but very very hard that day then rested up for the rest of the week. I was about 15 before my mum explained it

To have a baby I thought you went to a shop and drank a bottle of liquid and it made a baby grow in your tummy. About to make my child self unpopular here - you drank pink for a girl baby and blue for a boy baby . I think my mum must have told me this as surely no child is that stupid to think that up .

@Somuddled any large primate. My critical thinking skills were not working properly at the time...

This is outing but never mind. When I was a pre teen and I bought pre teen magazines, girl talk or sugar etc, I used to be very annoyed that my letters never got printed but this one girls letters were always printed, every month, sometimes two or 3 of them. Her name was..Name Withheld, from London.
My only (very weak) defence is that in my school all the girls were called Sarah or Rachel or Jennifer and i thought the name Name (pronounced Na-may in my head) was just a trendy 'London' name. I live very rurally

@AWiseWomanOnceSaidFuckThisShit

Fuck me, this thread has made me realise I'm thick as fuck!!! Out of interest can I please ask something I've always been scared to ask...

The big fuel tanks that deliver petrol to petrol stations. Who fills up THEIR tank? Do they even have a tank? Or do they just use the petrol they're carrying?

I would think most petrol tankers run on diesel. So they fill up their big petrol tank at the refinery but their own fuel tank is like any other lorry, filled up when they need to on their journey at fuel stations. Is that what you mean?

As a child, when I found out about the facts of life (doing the deed), I thought it may be only done like that in England but the Queen didn't; other countries probably had a different method.

I thought electricity pylons collected electricity from the air. That was when I was an adult, for years I had the mick taken out of me about 'electricity collectors'.

@CigarsofthePharoahs

I have believed many of these. We had a Ladybird history book when I was little. It had a section entitled "Post War." My reading wasn't brilliant at the time and I genuinely believed there was a period of history where the world had got so tired of fighting they'd resorted to just sending each other nasty letters in the post.

This is priceless

Loving Post War.

Whenever I heard about Sea King helicopters on the news, I thought they were Seeking helicopters as they were always looking for something…

I was extremely disappointed the day i found out that chemical castration did not involve a vat of acid. Much more effective if it did i feel.

@Derrymum123

I thought a shed load was enough of whatever to fill a shed, not a lorry shedding it's load. Wondered why they always mentioned a shed load of tyres or straw on traffic announcements and tried to imagine how much would fit in a shed , and how big the shed could be.

I thought the same up until your post

As a teenager I thought a Portakabin was pronounced Port-ak-a-bin

@mydogwillow eh?? It is?

'Wallis' Ice cream. The apostrophe in Wall's confused me!

I remember when I was really young my mum telling me about burglars breaking into my neighbours house. At the time I obviously just thought all people were good so I thought 'burglars' must have been a type of creature/aliens. I had nightmares for a while of a ET looking creature breaking into my house I was petrified!

@ilovebagpuss

When I was little I spent a long time picking out the little brown bits in recycled toilet paper. My mum eventually got fed up and asked what all the little bits were in the bin. Yes I really thought it was “recycled toilet paper” with little bits of dried poo. Of course it became family history to be re-told ALL THE TIME

I thought much the same, tbh.

As a teenager I could never understand why they couldn't catch the criminals featured on Crimewatch when they had been there and filmed them doing the crime. Obviously didn't understand the word reconstruction.

I thought females did a wee out of their bums for quite a lot of my childhood.

I also thought satellite TV was being filmed in space.

I used to wonder why the NHS just didn't buy more beds when there weren't enough beds.....!

@user38572

I remember when I was really young my mum telling me about burglars breaking into my neighbours house. At the time I obviously just thought all people were good so I thought 'burglars' must have been a type of creature/aliens. I had nightmares for a while of a ET looking creature breaking into my house I was petrified!

I identify with that. When I was a kid I believed Martians would land in the allotments behind our back garden.

I used to think the wombles lived on the Wimbledon tennis court until I was well into adulthood. My dad used to tell me if I looked closely ide see the ball boys picking up wombles instead of tennis balls.