It’s not pronounced “nim,” either.
Same here!
Also, due to a misunderstanding, I along with several others at my preschool when I was 4, thought that if we stood in the playground, staring up at the sky, and shouted “STAR TRUCK!” that the Star Truck would come pick us up and take us for an adventure.
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Iwanttoreadthatcomicbookomg!
I had no idea my grandpa had dentures, so when he randomly took them out at the dinner table one night, I was stunned! It was was the same impact as if he can suddenly unscrewed his arm…
I used to think that the Japanese attacked Pearl River (Louisiana, I’m from New Orleans). I used to think that rain was caused by the sun going behind a cloud and heating it up. I also thought (and I don’t know where this came from) that when parents gave birth to a child, someone told them everything that was going to happen to them for their entire lives. I didn’t completely get rid of that notion until I finally had my own kids and did not magically gain that knowledge.
I also believed that “essay” was “S. A.”, for me it was around fifth grade, when I started to hear about what I heard were “S. A. questions” on tests, though I can’t remember thinking of what it supposedly stood for.
I believed that Marlboro Lights cigarettes were called that because one lit them (set them on fire) to use them.
I figured they had fewer calories or something.
I thought that everyone in any TV show or book was a multimillionaire and set for life no matter what else happened. I didn’t make any distinction between the popularity of the TV show or the type of character either. An appearance on The Love Boat was instant, infinite wealth that could never be reversed. Aunt Esther from Sanford & Son was every bit as wealthy and prestigious as Steven Spielberg and would be driven around by chauffeurs forever and welcome anywhere, anytime. That idea started to fall apart when I learned that some previous famous people like the child actors from Different Strokes were down and out. How could that possibly be?
I don’t think I am the only one to think that way though I think that some adults still do and it does become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy but not in the way that I thought.
The Onion picked up on this thinking process as usual:
10-Year-Old Shocked Woman From ‘Guinness Book’ Who Can Pop Her Eyes Out Not A Millionaire
I thought babies came out like feces.
I mistook an almost dead, poisoned rat for a baby Australian possum. My sister and I had wrapped it in a blanket and patted it extensively before our parents discovered our mistake. A lot of hand washing ensued.
I though mud tasted like chocolate (according to my sister). I tested. It didn’t.
I hadn’t thought about this in years. 
When I was five I experienced my first tremor. When my mother said we had been “in” an earthquake and that an earthquake was in the ground, I was a little confused, as I had actually been in the kitchen at the time.
When my father came home I tried to explain to him how we had been in an earthquake, which was a machine in the ground, something like a bus, with doppelgangers of my mother and myself and some people from the neighborhood riding in it.
I also thought that new shiny pennies and old brown pennies were made of copper and gold, respectively.
Very, very briefly when I was very, very young I though people who were killed on TV shows and in movies were killed for real.
Never thought through how this could be legal or what (fabulous) incentives it would take to induce them to go for that.
When I was small, I heard about Steven King and somehow confused him with Martin Luther King jr. leading me to believe MLK was still alive.
I thought then when my mom made fries, she put them in a special pot and boiled them (using water). In fourth grade when my teacher was discussing fried food, she brought up french fries that you make at home, and how you could make them in the oven instead. I raised my hand and explained to the class how my mom cooked them, and that they tasted just fine. The teacher pointed out that I was absolutely wrong, and that I should go home and ask my mother how she really did it.
I have some uncles (WWII Vets) and a great uncle (WWI Vet) who still believe this. But they say it’s wars, not germs that come from Germany.
Me too, up until an embarrassingly large age (10?). I remember saying to my mother that it was okay when the contestants on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire didn’t win the million dollars, because they were still going to get paid lots of money because they were on TV, and lots of people would want to put them on their TV shows. They were famous now!
I remember at age 4 or so being confused about why you had to put a shirt upside down on the bed so that you would put it on right side up.
I thought that all music was recorded live, and always wondered what the audience heard when the version on a record had a fade out.
My bizarre misconceptions about sex and pregnancy could fill an entire book. My favorite: it was totally normal for a fetus to randomly disappear from one woman’s uterus and appear in another’s, without any warning or reason. I think I was confused about the concept of surrogacy.
Electric Warrior-Your shirt confusion at age 4 makes perfect sense. 4 year olds are just starting to dress themselves.
All I can remember off the top of my head is that I somehow got how a blinker works backwards–I thought up was left and down was right. I’ve always assumed that someone must’ve lied to me at one point.
I also had no idea where babies came from, and, when read a mythological story about some 15-year-old mother of a demigod, I said to a friend that it would be really cool if we could get pregnant, and wound up in a lot of trouble.
I didn’t know that debris was pronounced duh-bree. I thought there were 2 words (debris, “deb-riss” and debree, “duh-bree”) with the same meaning.
Also, once the Kindergarten teacher said that we were going to the planetarium. I thought we’d take a trip in a spaceship to a planet called Tarium, although I thought I knew all the then-9 planets and Tarium wasn’t 1 of them, so then I got confused.
I thought that gym (as in gymnasium) was spelled jim, too, as I had heard of people named Jim.
Silly girl. It was STAR TRACK. Everybody knows that.
Hah, I see you still have one of those misconceptions I had as a kid!
There’s only eight planets. Apparently Pluto is a dog.