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I Used to Believe
What silly notions did you believe as a kid? Here is a long list, supplied by volunteers, look to the left for extra links. Here is one good example of many:
I believed that Girl Scouts could arrest people as the police could, and that Boy Scouts could go to war.
I used to believe that it was the wedding ring which somehow caused children to come (really, and yes I was worried about what this meant for traditional scientific theories of causality). I also used to believe that a baseball shortstop had to be short, and that dealing with adult life -- just the simple mechanics of paying bills and the like -- would prove immensely complicated and perhaps beyond my capabilities.
I used to claim -- but not believe -- that my invisible friend Bing Bing lived under the refrigerator.
The pointer is from the always interesting www.geekpress.com.
What did you once believe?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 20, 2007 at 07:23 AM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
I believed there was a different Pope in every country. I live in Italy.
Posted by: Filter at Mar 20, 2007 8:26:26 AM
I believed that the homecoming queen in 'Daydream Believer' was a queen, and she was coming home.
Posted by: Teman at Mar 20, 2007 8:36:08 AM
I believed that police and firemen didn't have to eat, possesing superhuman abilities. You can imagine my shock when I first saw two police in a Burger King.
Posted by: pawnking at Mar 20, 2007 8:37:38 AM
I also believed that the shortstop had to be short. I believed for a very long time that girls never went to the bathroom. I knew a dog named Pete, so I thought that all dogs were named Pete for quite a few years (Note: I did not believe that the name of the animal was Pete, I knew it was a dog. I just thought they all had to be named Pete).
Posted by: Aaron Fix at Mar 20, 2007 8:50:28 AM
I believed that it was incredibly difficult to drive. Making big turns and stopping was doable, but watching my parents constantly making the tiny adjustments with the steering wheel to track the lane seemed unbelievably complicated.
Posted by: Justin at Mar 20, 2007 8:59:09 AM
I believed that when people referred to Rhodes Scholars, they were actually saying "Rogue Scholars," theoreticians with leather jackets and motorcycles.
Posted by: Andrew at Mar 20, 2007 9:15:21 AM
I believed that at some point, girls turned into boys and boys turned into girls. It was a completely logical deduction, based on conversations I'd been present for, but I can't remember the evidence.
I thought things were called "chester drawers", and that if the "worst came to worst", things would still turn out ok.
Posted by: Chi at Mar 20, 2007 9:16:47 AM
That Watergate had something to do with water and a gate.
Posted by: eweininger at Mar 20, 2007 9:18:25 AM
I believed that the world was once black and white. It sort of made sense because all the old movies and TV shows I saw were black and white.
Posted by: J.C. at Mar 20, 2007 9:19:37 AM
This I believed...but am ambivalent about announcing:
I used to believe that "girls peed out of their butts". There, I said it. It’s done, its out. I can now go on with the rest of my day with that monkey off of my back.
Posted by: steveintheknow at Mar 20, 2007 9:31:39 AM
I used to believe in an all-powerful Keynesian economics. I've since
learned it takes a little of this, a little of that, etc.
Posted by: Tim at Mar 20, 2007 9:41:12 AM
I believed that all dogs were boys, and that all cats were girls.
I also believed that prima donna was actually spelled pre-Madonna. It took a semester of Italian for me to recognize the mistake.
Posted by: Alex at Mar 20, 2007 9:41:56 AM
I believed that airports were just a bureaucratic procedure; you drove there, got on the plane, flew around in circles for a few hours, touched down at a different gate of the same airport, then just drove to your destination.
Posted by: NCA at Mar 20, 2007 9:44:53 AM
Hell, I'm 26 and still find paying bills to be incredibly difficult :)
Posted by: Matt at Mar 20, 2007 9:53:51 AM
I believed for a very long time that girls never went to the bathroom.
I had a modified version of that belief; for much of my childhood I thought that only boys went, you know, Number Two.
Posted by: Peter at Mar 20, 2007 9:58:49 AM
Peter Wrote:
"I had a modified version of that belief; for much of my childhood I thought that only boys went, you know, Number Two."
I still try my best to believe that
Posted by: Joe at Mar 20, 2007 10:01:43 AM
I thought that somehow babies came directly out of women's bellies, and I was perplexed at how this could happen since there weren't any openings to allow this. Later I found out there were openings. So, I also thought that boys had something down below while girls had nothing.
I used to believe that an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly just being created the universe, was watching over all of us, and would let some of us hang out with him after we died.
I thought computer bytes refered to some jawlike mechanism inside a computer that would clamp down on floppy disks in order to read them.
Posted by: J. at Mar 20, 2007 10:07:48 AM
As a child I read a lot, and believed much of what I read. Sure, I knew the difference between fiction and non-fiction, but I confused non-fiction with truth. I remember being fascinated by the series of books (the first was "Chariots of the Gods") by Erich Von Daniken that claimed the earth had been visited by aliens, and that certain ancient inscriptions and artifacts bore this out. Today, I am amazed that my younger self could actually read that crap without the slightest skepticism.
I also remember reading a book on "pyramid power" and believing that pyramids had all kinds of mysterious powers. I built one out of cardboard and put one of my father's dull razor blades underneath it, thinking that the pyramid would sharpen it after a few days. Needless to say, it didn't work. I now know that this is only true for crystal pyramids (ha ha -- that's a joke).
But in defense of my younger self, a lot of what can be considered "the truth" sounds pretty crazy too. Lacking years of experience in separating the wheat from the chaff, how is one to know the difference?
Posted by: pelkabo at Mar 20, 2007 10:09:42 AM
I was so convinced of the evil of drinking and driving that I'd yell at anybody in a car with a can of coke.
Posted by: awhogan at Mar 20, 2007 10:18:31 AM
I believed that Jesus was born on Christmas day and died about four months later on Good Friday. It didn't make any sense to me, but if you're already going down that road, why shouldn't he grow at a faster rate than normal people.
Posted by: the Pragmatist at Mar 20, 2007 10:19:37 AM
I believed that a red-coated "Mountie" from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would come to the candy store on my block in Brooklyn to collect all the Canadian coins kids covertly used as part of their candy money.
Posted by: Force Tube Avenue at Mar 20, 2007 10:23:56 AM
I thought the world was in black and white when my parents were young.
Posted by: Pat at Mar 20, 2007 10:36:07 AM
JC, I'm sorry I missed that you said the same thing about the world being in black and white. Glad I'm not alone!
Posted by: Pat at Mar 20, 2007 10:37:09 AM
Nuts. Someone beat me to the punch(line) on Keynes and god.
I'll sympathize with pelkabo about believing some stuff I read about, like pyramid power and astrology... but I think that's a different category. "The moon follows you" is a conclusion that children reach on their own, whereas UFOs and Bigfoot are taught to them by adults (or adult proxies like books and television) who ought to know better. Come to think of it, I guess Keynes and god fit that model too.
Beyond that, I can't recall the silly ideas I used to have. Does that mean I was well-grounded in reality as a child or does that mean I've lost touch with my childhood as an adult? I looked through the list of the most common beliefs, but everything on that list I either never believed or still do.
Posted by: eddie at Mar 20, 2007 10:43:05 AM
After the 1976 election, when Carter didn't become president the next day I thought he and Ford must have tied and agreed to split the next presidential term.
I also believed that Presidents never cried, so the whole Carter administration was a big surprise for me.
For many years after that, I believed that evidence and reason played a role in Congressional decisionmaking.
Posted by: DK at Mar 20, 2007 10:51:16 AM
