# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/267 "2022-01-26T17:57:57Z")
We had a 19" B&W TV, which my dad bought when I was about 7 (too early, probably), so that was my view of extended reality. One day, I was at someone else’s house where they had a color TV, _Star Trek_ was on, and damn but those colors made my eyes bleed. Going back to watching it in B&W was a relief. ---
**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 26, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/268 "2022-01-26T19:38:46Z")
When color TV was just being introduced some childhood friends told my brother and me they’d gotten one. It turned out they’d overlaid a plastic sheet – acetate or Mylar I guess – tinted cyan for the top third, pink in the middle, and green on the bottom on the screen. Even as a child I thought it exceedingly dumb. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/269 "2022-01-26T19:45:53Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Even as a child I thought it exceedingly dumb. Well yeah. They had it upside-down. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/270 "2022-01-26T22:24:35Z")
I remember getting _really_ excited when my dad told me that there were problems with the transformer outside, and subsequently really disappointed to find out that it was just a boring metal cylinder on a pole, and not a form-changing-robot. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/271 "2022-01-28T03:11:55Z")
That’s funny! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/272 "2022-01-28T06:30:03Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > When color TV was just being introduced some childhood friends told my brother and me they’d gotten one. It turned out they’d overlaid a plastic sheet – acetate or Mylar I guess – tinted cyan for the top third, pink in the middle, and green on the bottom on the screen. That might as well have been the first color TV I saw. My piano teacher was always behind, so you’d have to wait like twenty minutes with the other kids in her dark, overstuffed living room. But, she had a… whaaa…this can’t be color, everything is either neon green with a magenta halo around it, or magenta with green. The only way it was entertaining was to crank the “Color” knob so Walter Cronkite would cycle from Goop Green to Electric Fuchsia and back again. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/273 "2022-01-28T12:43:33Z")
1950’s - my father would occasionally attend “trade fairs” in another city. I, and my siblings, were always disappointed that we couldn’t come along for the cotton candy, rides, and games at the “fair”. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/274 "2022-01-28T14:13:11Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KISo_CJ2NoU/maxresdefault.jpg "Happy Days-The Cunninghams Get A TV Color Converter") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KISo_CJ2NoU) ---
**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 28, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/275 "2022-01-28T15:41:12Z")
A [Scooby stack](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScoobyStack), without the wall. Same concept but it wasn’t a fresnel lens, just flat plastic, and the middle section was pink – totally appropriate as there were no actors of color at the time. ---
**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:** [February 13, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317/276 "2022-02-13T21:44:08Z")
Someone mentioned the famous 1980s “This is your brain on drugs” PSA on on the radio earlier today, and it made me remember one. As you might recall, the ad started by showing a pat of butter in a hot frying pan, as the voiceover said “This is drugs.” As a kid, I thought that butter in the frying pan was literally drugs. As in I thought they were filming a chunk of crack or something melting in that frying pan. I mean, at that age I didn’t really know what drugs looked like. They were pretty much just an abstract concept to me at that time. I knew from all the anti-drug messaging at that time that drugs were bad, but I wouldn’t have recognized drugs if I saw them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stuff-i-thought-when-i-was-a-kid/954317.md?page=13)