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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:
LackaDAISYcal · 07/05/2014 22:24

I had to confess one to my DD a while ago. My DS's both have strong Scottish names that have a meaning. She asked me what her name meant, and not having a clue, told her it was French for "beautiful flower". She has been going on and on and on about it since and after a school friend laughed at her, I have had to admit it actually means industrious/hardworking Blush. Incidentally she is industrious and hardworking, but it doesn't suit her airy, fairy, flaky 6 yo frivolous tendencies.

I will wait a few years before I let slip that it's also, according to urban dictionary, slang for a highly attractive and sexually intriguing being. Or maybe I won't share that nugget of information at all Confused

EatsCakeForNoReasonWhatsoever · 07/05/2014 22:24

Tapir did she actually insert the contraceptive pull up her wazoo then? How come noone had told her different when prescribing it to her? !

BOFster · 07/05/2014 22:25

How are you getting on with the positive affirmations, Aspiringhuman?

For my part, I thought that the Isle Of Dogs was where quarantined pets were held before they were allowed into the country.

TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot · 07/05/2014 22:27

I thought the only way a death could be shown in a film was if someone really died. Then when I was about nine and was beginning to doubt it I was watching a film with my dad and someone died. I said to him, "Is he really dead?" My dad thought I was talking about the character, not the actor, and said, "Yes, he couldn't survive that." So I carried on believing it for another ten few years.

And for a while I thought Tymoshenko was a man called Tim O'Shenko.

And I used to think that gorillas fought in wars.

NecklessMumster · 07/05/2014 22:31

When I was in infant school I thought there were two types of sky, the blue one and the white one.I remember looking out of the classroom window one morning and thinking 'oh, it's the white sky today'. I didn't realise it was overcast. .with clouds.

CuriosityCola · 07/05/2014 22:35

Are prunes really plums? Shock

I'm 32, how did I not know this? Thanks for enlightening me weatherall Smile

Bitofkipper · 07/05/2014 22:36

As a horse obsessed child I sat waiting for hours to watch The Ryder Cup on Telly.

MissHobart · 07/05/2014 22:37

ThatBloodyWoman - just in case nobody answered, the Discworld is the world Terry Pratchett writes about!

nameuschangeus · 07/05/2014 22:37

I can remember thinking that cheese was mined because of the cheddar gorge. I thought it was a vast cheesey basin. I used to worry that we'd run out of cheddar. I have two evil brothers who encouraged my innocent belief.

Twistiesandshout · 07/05/2014 22:38

Aged 24 my then bf driving friend and I to heathrow, the sign said 1M. I couldn't understand how it could only be 1 minute away and I couldn't see the airport yet... In my defense I'm from a country where we use km. But still OMG how was I so thick? [ blush ]

Twistiesandshout · 07/05/2014 22:39
Blush
ThatBloodyWoman · 07/05/2014 22:45

Thanks Miss!

I used to think treacle was mined when I was a child back in the 70's, and looking it up it seems the Discworld books weren't written then, so I can't have got it from them.

Perhaps Terry Pratchett got the same information as I did as a child.

(Btw, treacle isn't mined, is it? )

I was also not convinced that spaghetti didn't come from trees if the truth be known....

MissHobart · 07/05/2014 22:49

Treacle is not mined as far as I know!

I'm another one who thought To Let signs meant toilets, usually driving down the motorway needing to pee and wondering why my mum didn't pull over at one of the numerous toilets that seemed to be available! Confused

nancy75 · 07/05/2014 22:53

My parents got married in the 70's, with my mum wearing a long dress and a pair of massive white platform shoes (in the photo you could only see the platform bit of the shoe at the front because of the dress) I spent years trying to work out how to put my shoes on backwards so that the heel was at the front like my mums shoes in the photos.......

SconeRhymesWithGone · 07/05/2014 22:53

As a child I thought that the Lord's Prayer said "forgive us our trash baskets."
"Trash basket" is a common name for rubbish bin in the Southern US where I grew up, so I thought that they were a necessary evil and that we should be sorry we had to have them.

WorryWarrier · 07/05/2014 22:54

I used to be amazed at how people always broke down on the hard shoulder Confused

GarlicMayHaveNamechanged · 07/05/2014 22:55

I needed to get my PhD thesis bound and so I rang a bookmaker.

Aaaaahahahahaaaaah!!! Flowers

PlasticLamp · 07/05/2014 22:55

I only found out narwhals are real last year.

Clarabum · 07/05/2014 22:59

I thought my dad literally 'made pennies' with a hammer and tools when he went to work.

My Mum used to tell me that my Dad had to go to work to make pennies.

I could never work out what he did when he went to the BBC where he actually worked.

I could never link the two until I was about 7 and he took me to his work and I asked to see the room where the pennies were made.

Then the reality unfolded.

Clarabum · 07/05/2014 23:00

Plastic- I also though narwhals weren't real. Until Octonauts came on cbeebies I didn't know a lot about the sea. Blush

psychicpaper · 07/05/2014 23:05

Pimpf

I had nightmares about that because of the adventure game for years!!

MexicanSpringtime · 07/05/2014 23:05

My daughter thought that anonymous was a very talented and prolific poet

letsgomaths · 07/05/2014 23:06

I remember (probably aged about 4) saying "when I grow down little..." My parents soon told me the truth about that.

When waiting in a very long line to play pin the tail, aged about 6, I watched all the other kids having a pink scarf tied over their eyes, and I was fascinated by why they weren't pinning the tail in the right place, especially as we had been told whoever got it nearest would win. Then it was my turn, someone put the blindfold on me... and I was shocked to discover I couldn't see anything at all, not even pink! I think I assumed that the scarf would look like it does if you hold it three feet in front of you.

More recently, that "Coke and Spiriter" was slang for an accomplice (co-conspirator).

MexicanSpringtime · 07/05/2014 23:12

And another one, my parents separated when I was four and my dad went to live abroad. But I only realised they were separated when I was twelve and then went into a week-long depression about it.

I'd spent the latter part of my childhood feeling sorry for the children of separated parents.

nancy75 · 07/05/2014 23:14

Mexican - where did you think your dad was for 8 years?