# Stupid stuff I thought when I was a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 14, 2021, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317 "2021-11-14T03:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/247 "2022-01-07T20:00:20Z")
It’s always prudent to assume there are monsters until proven otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/248 "2022-01-08T12:46:07Z")
That’s a cool story mmmiiikkkeee. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/249 "2022-01-08T16:40:14Z")
> [@mmmiiikkkeee](#): > > The winking happened when a drop of water or little pebble fell down and hit the water causing one of the reflections to flicker. I’d always get scared and pull my face back when that happened. Eventually I got brave enough to keep watching and even try to drop little rocks down to see what would happen. So, a budding young scientist, then. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/250 "2022-01-08T22:10:48Z")
When I was kid, many TV shows had a verbal announcement during the credits that … The Beverly Hillbillies is brought to you by … Kelloggs Corn Flakes I thought “isbroughttoyouby” was a single word and ask my Mother how it was spelled so I could look it up in the dictionary, ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/251 "2022-01-08T23:16:36Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I thought “isbroughttoyouby” was a single word and ask my Mother how it was spelled so I could look it up in the dictionary, As a small child it came across to be as “brocktayouby”. I finally asked my mother what “brocktayouby” meant. She told me what a sponsor was and I was surprised it meant _Brought_ to you by, since around where we lived the word brought was pronounced “_Brawt_” and not “Brot”. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/252 "2022-01-09T01:23:57Z")
Too bad they didn’t have Donna Douglass say it; she would have pronounced it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/253 "2022-01-09T03:17:46Z")
Heh, I thought it was “protuyou” and couldn’t parse it for the life of me (until I was a teen). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/254 "2022-01-09T23:45:51Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I thought if you were watching TV and needed to turn it off, you could turn it on later and continue watching the same program right where you left off. The corollary is people today who, while streaming TV leave the room and go do something else for an hour or two without pausing the TV. “What, we finished that series already?” Grrr! ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/255 "2022-01-10T21:36:38Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > There were a lot of similar sounding words that I confused as a kid (which I bet is pretty common). I think I understood the difference between invisible/indivisible because my teacher explained it, but I mixed up: > > - Pacific/specific > - pneumonia/ammonia > - And since the way my mom pronounced “baking powder” sounded like “bakin’ powder”, I thought it was bacon powder. Also, Transylvania/Pennsylvania. I was kind of disappointed the first time I visited Pennsylvania and it wasn’t spooky, like an old Dracula movie. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/256 "2022-01-10T21:39:40Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I was kind of disappointed the first time I visited Pennsylvania and it wasn’t spooky, like an old Dracula movie. Nah, it’s spooky like an old “Living Dead” movie. 🧟 🧟‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/257 "2022-01-10T23:25:35Z")
I thought “Rocky” the flying squirrel lived in the Rocky Mountains. I mean, where else? Along with his side kick Bullwinkle. I was looking forward to meeting them. First time I visited as a kid I was a little… ![](https://c.tenor.com/7sfKrzjW9AEAAAAd/a-fish-called-wanda-disappointed.gif) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/258 "2022-01-10T23:47:10Z")
In a similar vein, my first time to Disneyland was in 1959, a few months after the monorail had opened. A photo in the visitor’s guide we got on entering showed Unca Walt in the driver’s bubble up top. When the train glided into the station I was keenly disappointed to see some _girl_ up there. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/259 "2022-01-20T22:27:12Z")
Building on that idea…how a gas, heated-up enough and charged…becomes a plasma? And in your blood…centrifuge out the red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc…the straw colored fluid left over is… …_plasma?_ ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/260 "2022-01-20T22:55:21Z")
Ahem… …that is, building on Senegoid’s post about atoms. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/261 "2022-01-24T05:17:40Z")
When I was a kid a science museum in the nearby big city was heavily advertising their new dinosaur exhibit. As I recall the TV ads showed vicious looking t-rexes in cages roaring and biting at the bars, and that sort of thing. I believed scientists had found some real dinosaurs that were still alive somewhere, and they were on display at the museum like a zoo exhibit. When we actually went to see it, it was just some stupid animatronic dinosaurs. I was very disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/262 "2022-01-25T02:30:23Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Transylvania Imagine my thrill when, at the tender age of 30, I learned my bride’s grandparents were both originally from…Transylvania! Sadly, they were not vampires. Although the grandpa DID talk a bit like Count Chocula. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/263 "2022-01-25T16:30:31Z")
Was he at least a sweet transvestite? ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/264 "2022-01-26T14:16:18Z")
Likes chocolate…from Transyvlania…maybe so! ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/265 "2022-01-26T16:20:12Z")
Due to old movies, I guess, I thought New York was gray all the time. Not just overcast weather, but like a black and white film. Ditto England, though when I visited there it _was_. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/266 "2022-01-26T17:02:48Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > I thought New York was gray all the time. Not just overcast weather, but like a black and white film. That was only the case [until sometime in the 1930s](https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/11/09). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317.md?page=14)