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Original poster

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

413 replies

treaclesoda · 07/05/2014 09:56

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 Grin

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

Please tell me someone else out there thought the same?

OP posts:
KatieKaye · 07/05/2014 18:24

I didn't realise the Thunderbirds were puppets until I was about 17. It broke my heart as I wanted to marry Alan Tracey...

My Dad used to tell me stories about the war. I was so proud of him. Not because of his bravery, but because he had a real life superhero for a friend - yup, he had a batman.

I was a very dense child.

paragirl1981 · 07/05/2014 18:24

When I saw signs advertising free range eggs I always wondered why we didn't stop and get the free eggs although I was a bit confused at what a range was!

QOD · 07/05/2014 18:26

I thought penisissss where really long and kept rolled up in pants until needed

clangermum · 07/05/2014 18:32

We have a treacle mine near us.....

Original poster
treaclesoda · 07/05/2014 18:33

I might be spectacularly thick but I don't get the war/superhero/batman thing...

OP posts:
PirateJones · 07/05/2014 18:35

I thought you could swim in zero gravity to get about.

Fishstix · 07/05/2014 18:35

Erm...i still think Arkansas is pronounced like that...Blush

Bunbaker · 07/05/2014 18:35

I used to think that women who went back to work when their babies were small put their careers before their family. MN soon put me right!

Fishstix · 07/05/2014 18:38

Ok, I just u-tubed it. Just when I thought that mn had nothing more to teach me!

KatieKaye · 07/05/2014 18:40

Batman is not just a superhero but also the term for an army officer's manservant.

LookingThroughTheFog · 07/05/2014 18:41

Segue and segway. I thought they were two different words. Until a few months ago.

bumpieonamission · 07/05/2014 18:42

You weren't supposed to open your life jacket in a plane as if everyone did there'd be no air left

ApocalypseNowt · 07/05/2014 18:44

Isn't a batman a post in the army? Sort of an assistant to someone higher up?

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 07/05/2014 18:48

Ive posted before but will share for this thread.

Until a few years ago i thought the white cliffs of dover were painted white. Obviously i hadnt given it much thought, i dont think about them very much at all but for some reason, in my head, they were painted white. I only realised a few years ago when watching a programme with EXP and i said "they must cost a fortune to maintain" and exp gave me a terrified look, as if he had just realised that he had created children with a blob of unthinking jelly. Then he asked me to explain my comment (to confirm i was as thick as he feared) and as i was explaining it dawned on me just how ridiculous that was.

My kids are really smart

Grin
KateShmate · 07/05/2014 18:49

I just youtubed it too Fishstix - I knew there was a state called 'Arkinsaw' but I thought it was a different place to Arkansas... Ooops!

BomChickaMeowMeow · 07/05/2014 18:51

Segue and segway have different meanings though.

KatieKaye · 07/05/2014 18:51

I thought the Rock of Gibraltar was a rock, all by itself, in the middle of the sea. Like the Bass Rock, only bigger. Much bigger
Boy, was I unimpressed when I saw it!

ihategeorgeosborne · 07/05/2014 18:54

I remember walking down a street near my house when I was about 11 and saying to my dad, "I didn't know this was called Whist Drive, I thought it was called Chichester Close". Obviously, I had never heard of a 'Whist Drive'. Oh how my family laughed at me for that for many years.

Also remember my parents getting stressed about not being able to pay for a school trip and me saying, "can't you just write a cheque?". Grin

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 07/05/2014 18:59

What is whist drive? I have never heard of that.

SomethingAboutNothing · 07/05/2014 19:00

I thought an artic lorry was an arCtic lorry and they were the ones that transported frozen food. I was around 21 when I realised it was an articulated lorry Blush

I thought the same about Arkansas.

ihategeorgeosborne · 07/05/2014 19:04

Whist is a card game and a whist drive is a group of card players getting together to play whist tournaments (i think). Very popular with the elderly round our way.

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 07/05/2014 19:12

Ahhhh! Thanks for that. I had no idea.

DioneTheDiabolist · 07/05/2014 19:12

I thought that foreign languages were a kind of code, so each country had an alphabet, like ours but in a different order. And all I would have to do would be to memorize the new alphabets and I would master the languages.

Turned out, I was wrong.Blush

thefirstmrsrochester · 07/05/2014 19:16

yy to gorillas/guerrillas, I'm certain even now that if 'insurgents' were referred to as guerrillas, in my minds eye a band of king kongs would be wreaking havoc.

The Arkinsaw/Arkansas thing ..... took mumsnet a year or two ago to clarify they were the same place.

Was convinced that the consumption of any seed would result in a plant/tree growing inside you heralding your early demise.

Goalie · 07/05/2014 19:17

My brother convinced me that chipolata sausages grew into piglets and then pigs...