Things you used to think and now can't quite believe you did

[treaclesoda]

I saw a seagull flying and it suddenly occurred to me that when I was little, I thought there were two different types of seagulls. Ones with legs, and ones without. Naturally the ones with legs had no choice but to fly all the time

I was a pretty bright child, I can't imagine why I thought that.

Please tell me someone else out there thought the same?

I believed the Center Parcs thing until a recent thread on MN.

And yy to common wombles (I didn't think they were common in the not-posh sense, I just thought there were lots of them) and the special swimming pool dye which I really did think existed until I read this thread.

As a kid I thought the DLR was the Ducklands Light Railway and the trains were driven by ducks. I also thought Lord of the Dance was Lord of the Ducks (in year one when they assumed we couldn't read so didn't bother giving us hymn books ). ^Ducks then, wherever you may be... and I'll lead you all and the ducks said he.^

I also believed my parents when they claimed to have helped a lost duck and her ducklings find their way from the middle of a road back to the river by leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.

I was about, um, 30 when I recounted this story to DH and realised it couldn't be true having never questioned it before.

I don't know what's with all the ducks.

After reading this thread at the age of 41 I have discovered how to pronounce Arkansas. I thought Arkansaw was another place.

I thought I was quite intelligent too

Grew up in the 1970s, where every night the news described the terrible things that were happening in a place called Northinaaland. I resolved that never in my life was I going anywhere near it. Until I found out it was the English newsreaders' pronunciation of the place where I actually lived .

Similarly, but on a lighter note, I was in my 20s before I worked out that Eeyore was called Eeyore because of the noise a donkey makes. Before that I'd always pronounced the "r", so it didn't work in my accent.

I was in my 20s before I worked out that Eeyore was called Eeyore because of the noise a donkey makes.

I am in my 30s. This is brand-new information for me!

Until I was about 11 or 12 I thought there were no particular rules for which side of the road you drive. Cars would just pick a side and somehow change lane if there was someone coming in the opposite direction.

I thought an "air guitar" was an actual type of guitar. Rather like an air rifle is a type of gun.

I believed until fairly recently that if you went cross eyed there was a risk you would stay like it - I thought it was a muscular thing.

I thought Timbuktu was a fictional place until it was in the news a few years back.

I recently unthinkingly referred to the early 20th century as "black and white times".

I'm 32.

I thought elbow grease was an actual thing you could buy.

I thought football teams' sponsors were somehow permanently linked to the club. when Liverpool stopped having 'crown paints' on their tops I thought something had gone wrong!

Women and babies....

Used to wonder about this as a child. How come some women are mothers and some are not. I came to the conclusion that God must decide that a female got to some level of maturity where they could be a Mum, and that was the reason why some were 20 and some were 30 etc. Men didnt seem to come into the equation for some strange reason. And babies were born through belly buttons because that was the only place for them to come out, I suppose.

In my defence I think I was about 6

I thought the day after Christmas was called Boxing Day because there were loads of boxing matches on, I'm 30 and only twigged a couple of years ago!

I thought dumplings (as in soft doughy balls you get in stews) were baby ducks for a really long time I could never bring myself to eat one

Flip me I thought arctic (sic) trucks were freezer ones too.
You learn something new eveyday.
I remember always getting annoyed at a young age up til I was 12 that I was always left on my own in photos . I honestly though my mum had left me on a swing and wandered off. I mentioned it and she said "who did you think was taking the photos? "

Honsandrevels- 'I thought the penis made it's own way in during kissing'

This made me me laugh. I always remember during sex education in about year 8 one of the girls in my class asking how the man's penis got in there. The teacher's response was amazing and I still remember it to this day 15 years later.

'You may have to use your hand to get it in the right position, it's not a guiding missile'

Eeyore....! Heehaw well I never.

So prunes are plums - didn't know that either.

I thought the man in Frost, only fools and horses and darling buds of May were all different actors well into my 30s!

I also thought the wombles were common and used to wonder why they sang about it.

Alsatians and alastians were two different breeds of dog. The latter being the long haired type (had never heard of a German shepherd)!

I thought for a long time that when a tennis player was serving at Wimbledon and the ball hit the line and "bleeped" out, the bbc were bleeping out the player's swearing.

Brilliant thread, I've had to de-lurk just to post this.

I didn't really pay it much thought, but if it ever crossed my mind, I used to think that the baby's umbilical cord was attached to the inside of the mum's bellybutton, and it sort of tethered the baby in place.

I thought that too Otto

MrsW "can't stand gravy" haha haha fantastic

I grew up where there weren't any squirrels. Having only seen them in books etc. I thought they were the size of rabbits. When finally I did see one I was amazed they were so small. When I mentioned this to DH after we were married he inquired how something the size of a rabbit would be able to leap through trees without breaking them - hadn't thought of that!

Me too Ottos! Even while I was pregnant in my thirties Also thought the placenta and the umbilical cord were different words for the same thing until I gave birth

As a kid I thought that if I couldn't see something, no-one else could either. I hated my little brother, so if I saw something nice, a cute animal, for example, I would tightly shut my eyes so he wouldn't see it either. I spent whole episodes of favourite TV programmes with my eyes pointedly closed until eventually my mum asked what was going on.

I had no idea about Eeyore until I read this thread.

Also the swimming pool thing, but green dye for me. I'm sure this was true in the US?
And, that Elizabeth 1st was Elizabeth II's mum.

That reminds me Camel of someone i knew - cambridge uni student and doing STEM subject - who hadn't realised until university that the earth went round the sun not the other way round.

I used to think that people were moving so fast that it looked like they were standing still in front of you. I used to look from side to side when my mum was sitting on the couch to see if I could see a blur from her shooting from one side of the room to the other, whilst holding a conversation with me