this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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When i was a child, i believed autopilot really worked like in the movie Airplane, that it was an inflatable dummy.

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[โ€“] waggz@programming.dev 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In the 80s when i was a child there were billboards with PSAs saying don't drink and drive. I'd promptly scold my parents if i caught them taking a sip from their soft drink after hitting the McDonald's drive through.

[โ€“] HandwovenConsensus@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

"Drink" is such a weird word in how it has both a general and specific meaning, but no other word for the general meaning is commonly used.

"Drink your milk! No drinking until you're 21!"

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[โ€“] leadore@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not sure what age I was, maybe 4. I thought the music on the radio was live, that the musicians went to the radio station to sing and it was broadcast from there.

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[โ€“] j4k3@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

The semaphore homunculus lived in the stop lights at intersections.

In my Superman onesie (w/ cape), I could fly, but was never brave enough to launch from a high enough step on the stairs. I knew I was flying, but...

[โ€“] EstraDoll@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

that i was a boy

[โ€“] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

That there were little gnomes inside the doors of the cars and that they were in charge of raising and lowering the windows, especially in the automatic cars.

[โ€“] ToxicDivinity@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought every song on the radio was being performed live somewhere

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[โ€“] dessalines@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago

New York city was the size of the whole state. Like the entire thing looked like manhattan.

[โ€“] mitrosus@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[โ€“] Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The USA was the moral leader the world. But I watched CNN as a kid so...

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[โ€“] Hello_Kitty_enjoyer@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I thought adults were smarter than me

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[โ€“] roofTophopper@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

I thought those crosses or flowers on the side of the road were where they buried the person who died in an accident.

[โ€“] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm gonna sound so stupid, but I thought checks just gave you free money. I thought my parents were wasting a check by writing such a small amount, and ask them something like why not write a bigger number?

Then they explained that you need money in the bank to work. I was too young to even be embarrassed, I was just like ok cool, didn't even realize how dumb I was.

In my defence, I was like 9 and I just arrived in the US and never heard of a "check" before.

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[โ€“] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

I thought that I'd die of cancer because that's my zodiac sign and nobody could convince me otherwise.

[โ€“] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 week ago

I remember knowing that knives will cut you and make you bleed, and that when people were shot in movies they would bleed, therefore bullets must be shaped like little blades.

[โ€“] FireWire400@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Pretty common belief among stupid 7-year-olds, I think; humans couldn't see colour up to the mid-60s.

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[โ€“] lnxtx@feddit.nl 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Actors are dying... for real.

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[โ€“] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I believed I was an adopted alien from outer space before I realised my face is like my father's but prettier.

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[โ€“] Riffraffintheroom@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Americans/Canadians made out while they undressed before sex, English people calmly undressed in front of each other and then began having sex in a dispassionate and business-like fashion. I think some other kid heard an adult say it as a joke then passed it on as a learned truth.

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[โ€“] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I believed a kid who told me that every 4th of July, former US presidents who were still alive - which I somehow imagined was a large group - stood in a circle around the statue of liberty and held hands singing, "He's got the whole world in his hands."

[โ€“] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Can I'll cheat a little and use my teen years.
When let's plays where the new hot thing, I thought a blind let's play literally meant, eyes closed

[โ€“] Tuxman@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought the "Gulf War" was in fact the "GOLF War" and was happening at a golf course near our home.. like โ€ฆ halfway to see uncle Peter!! ๐Ÿ˜…

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[โ€“] CarsAndComrades@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

I thought that the Michelin tire company was headquartered in Michigan, USA and not France. In my defense, most of the US auto industry is based in Michigan, and they sound similar.

Also: I will never accept the "fact" that the Michelin Man is named "Bibendum" france-cool

[โ€“] Snapz@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I had to go to a private Christian school in third grade - not because we were religious, we were not, but because gang violence was getting serious in my town and the private school was seen as the safe option my mom decided on for a year even though we couldn't afford it.

Again, not religious, but Christian school meant we had to go to "Chapel" every day - Sing bible songs and get the typical religious indoctrination. Anywho... In the chapel, there was a giant rectangular speaker box suspended up at the center of the ceiling. Not sure how but with all the talk of Jesus dying for your sins and everything, I became convinced that that speaker box was his coffin. I thought he was there, suspended above us, every day at Chapel in our little school

[โ€“] Ataraxia@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

That tv programming would pause when I turned the TV off.

[โ€“] No1@aussie.zone 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Not me, but I have heard that kids used to think 'olden times' were black & white, because all old films were before the introduction of colour. Like, it's only in the last 80? years that people see in colour...

It makes me giggle when modern movies use b&w to depict pre 21st century, or even 'flashbacks' are b&w

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Two that come to mind:

People would say that's an "old timey" car or something and I thought that was a brand name.

I thought the people who had really tall spiky mohawks had hair that just grew like that.

That all adults are smokers.

[โ€“] chottomatte@lemdro.id 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

that if we break tv's screen , tv charecters can get out of it and we can enter tv

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[โ€“] DeaDvey@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That all television, even live action, was just made by someone who could draw really fast.

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Freddy Krueger was two people. I thought it was like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. I thought it was Dr. Krueger and Freddy was the monster he created. When I saw the movie I was like where's his creator, the one that brought him to life?

[โ€“] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 8 points 1 week ago

rice turned water into soil

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