It’s funny how when you are a kid you are exposed to new things in books, TV and movies before you have the skills to understand fact from fiction. There was a time when Santa Claus, dragons and unicorns were just as real to me as whales, dinosaurs and the Space Shuttle. The truth is revealed gradually and not in any organized way. For a long time I thought woolly mammoths were just what elephants looked like in the winter. What misconceptions did you have that lasted longer than it probably should have?
@Takla: May the blessings of the Buddha rain down upon you like rain upon the ground. Sometimes we use this version in my house. XD
When I was really small I was convinced that babies were produced in hospitals, because that was where everyone was getting them from. I was partly right!
When I was little, we used to own the VHS of Toy Story, and I was convinced that it was the longest thing in the world to sit through. The first time my mom showed me how to plant seeds, I asked how long it would take to grow. She told me it would be a “long time”, and I asked her how much of Toy Story I would have to watch before the flowers were done.
Finally, after one thanksgiving and three finals, I am caught up completely.
One thing I believed for way to long was that my cottage was the farthest point on the planet away from my house. It is 1 hour and 30 minutes away.
until i was in high school I thought “INXS” and “In Excess” were two different bands. i had never heard the name and seen the name at the same time. I thought the first name was pronounced “INKS” phonetically
My dad had my sister and me utterly convinced that a bb gun he owned was an elephant rifle. We were maybe 3 and 5 when he told us and 10 and 12 when we finally figured it out xD
Thanks to South Park, I thought the word Jew was a bad word well into my teens. Then we got our first computer and internet access and I learned it wasn’t.
That Vienna sausage was made solely of cow tongue. I repeated that for YEARS up until a few months ago (I’m 24) when I finally had enough mind to look it up.
@teretorre, 3 days ago – yes, all dogs were male and all cats were female! My sister held this to be absolute truth, so we had two female dogs named Buster and Jake, and three cats (two males) named Sasha, Cleopatra, and Pandora.
I have aspergers (A very high-functioning form of autism, it impedes social skills and makes people smarter), and I always viewed things with a bit more of a scrutinizing eye when it came to things I believed in. I’d never even heard of the belief of monsters in the toilet, under the bed, or in the closet until some other kids told me. I didn’t learn about people knocking on the bathroom door before entering until Kindergarden, when someone walked in on me in the room’s bathroom.
I used to think that the only M&M’s that were chocolate-flavored were the brown ones.
I found an old chemistry exercise book not too long ago which dated back to when I was about twelve or so. On one page I’d had to write everything I knew about oxygen, which I’d done and subsequently a dreadful grade for. It was easy to see why the page was covered in red crosses – the opening line was ‘oxygen is just a fancy word for air.’
I have to say that I still believe in a type of Santa Claus. But no, I haven’t really been given any proof otherwise. Mainly because I still remember a man who came to me and he was a benevolent spirit. He helped me find a box big enough to hold all sorts of things. When we turned around to thank him, he was gone.
:O CHARLIES HORN! Where art his kidney! this drawing is a misconception!
I’m 40-something years old and still think unicorns are awesome.
When I was little, I used to think “LMNOP” was one letter. It’s the only sequence of letters in the alphabet song that’s out of rhythm. As a result, I was constantly searching for this illusive magical mystery letter. (Sorry for backposting, I just started reading this comic a couple weeks ago and have really been enjoying savoring little bits of Biffness every day.)
I thought Narwhals were fake.
XDDD Charlie reference, whether intentional or not! “Oh, come on, now WHAT did that accomplish??” “Quick! Grab a hold of our tongues! -bleh-”
…-goes to watch them again-
For a long long time I believed the phases of the moon was caused by the earth casting a shadow on it.
It wasn’t for lack of information, I must have seen the standard charts they use to explain it in several books, but I was 18 before it dawned on me that I was wrong. And I consider myself smart!
As a kid I always thought that my teddies were alive somehow and after I saw Toy Story I thought I had finally figured out how. I’m now 19 and I know they’re just stuffing and material but I still treat them nicely and occasionally speak to them (well it’s more like thinking out loud but directing it at someone rather than having a conversation)
I was born hearing impaired and as such I did and still do often misunderstand some words or phrases when I haven’t got my hearing-aids in. Occaisionally as I was growing up I would hear some one say, “I think that child may be autistic” or some thing similar. (This was also several decades ago and so autism wasn’t really understood by the general public) What I always heard was, “I think that child may be artistic.” The meaning of artistic and the behaviors and symptoms of autism became linked in my mind and for the longest time (until I was about 12) I believed that only people who showed signs of autism could ever be artists.
i thought the vietnam war occured in cuba and the russians shipped vetnameese fresh with the missles and america inveded cuba form the north and south from the same time and ended up killing other americans when they met in the middle cus all army men were green and looked the same. that caused stars to be put on generals helmets so they wouldnt get shot.
In a cunning reversal, one false belief that ended TOO SOON for me was the belief that my parents were perfect. That’s probably why I have so little faith (in anything; people, religion, engineering, books). Just a suspension of disbelief for temporary periods.
I thought Arkansas and Arkansaw were two different states until my thirteenth Summer.
I still believe that most people are good, and that good people get good things. The world seems to be trying much to hard to rid me of the notion, but experience is a powerful teacher.