Open Thread Update: Your Silly Kid Beliefs
Last time we asked what silly things we believed as kids as we tried to figure out the world we lived in.
KID LOGIC
As a kid I loved black-eyed peas with cornbread. I remember “Peace in the Valley” in the car at night as my family moved again. My dad worked in the oilfield as a roughneck, so we moved often back then following the rig from town to town every few weeks. Listening to the radio in the dark as we relocated (again), Red Foley intoned those deep notes. As our old ’48 Ford cut through the night, I pictured my grandma on the farm picking black-eyed “peas in the valley.”
When I was a kid listening to the radio, I used to think all the performers singing were somehow standing in line in the radio, waiting their turn to sing. Then Dad took me to Wildwood park, Harrisburg, Pa & I saw 2 singers in person. I asked Dad… when are they going into the radio?”
-Rhonda G.
I thought the bank kept your money in your own shoebox there. My siblings remind me of this yet today.
-Kathy D.
Kids’ ideas about Santa Claus
Given the season, Santa Claus figured highly but the Easter Bunny got a nod from Reader Catherine:
I thought the Easter Bunny came in through the keyhole. That’s how he got in our apartment; Santa would skip over our house if we were awake after 12 pm.
Smart mom!
Meanwhile, Reader Jacqui thought Santa had a day job…
We picked out our Christmas wishes from the Sears catalog. I actually thought that Santa and Sears worked together somehow!
YOUR TURN
Original Column
We are the last generation to grow up and mature without the internet. Maybe that’s a double-edged sword. We had a lot more innocence – we were free to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Sandman. But now, with any information – or misinformation – available with every smartphone (and every youngster endowed with a smartphone), younger people seem to be more worldly than we were at their age. They have the ability to fact check anything…
…but we didn’t.
And sometimes that was hilarious.
But Mom said…
Little Virge, like any kid my age at that time, believed what adults told me. I had no way to check when my mom told me every time we opened the refrigerator it cost us a nickel. She also told me ice cream trucks played their jingles when they ran out of ice cream. (I very quickly fact checked that one.)
Kid Logic
Other times it was just a kid’s way to figure out how the world worked – with very little information but a lot of imagination. I thought brussel sprouts were baby cabbages and cartoon characters could just blow up a balloon and it would float, but I couldn’t because I had the wrong kind of balloon. I was six when I learned about helium.
And don’t get me started about Santa Claus! We didn’t have a real fireplace so I thought he magically squeezed in through our radiator, like how the genie squeezed out the the magic lamp. (Rubbing the radiator to encourage him to come did not yield a happy result.)
YOUR TURN
How about you? What was your ‘kid logic” belief – about Santa Claus — or anything else? What silly thing did a grownup tell you that you took seriously? How old were you before you learned the truth? Share your story in the comments!
Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send Open Thread suggestions to editor@seniorplanet.org.
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Comments
We lived in an apartment with no fireplace. Every Christmas my father decorated the apartment door with a huge gold styrofoam key which he said Santa shrunk using magic and would then open the door. And that was how he delivered our presents. Then he would lock the door, enlarge the key and hang it back on the door. We believed it. We also believed the tooth fairy came every two weeks on a Wednesday. She was a busy woman. It also happened to be the day my father got paid.
Your Dad sounds like a gem.
As a little kid, I wanted to know how people got belly buttons. My older cousin told me the cashier at the grocery store stamps your belly. I believed her until my mom told me it wasn’t true.
As a kid I loved black-eyed peas with cornbread. I remember “Peace in the Valley” in the car at night as my family moved again. My dad worked in the oilfield as a roughneck, so we moved often back then following the rig from town to town every few weeks. Listening to the radio in the dark as we relocated (again), Red Foley intoned those deep notes. As our old ’48 Ford cut through the night, I pictured my grandma on the farm picking black-eyed “peas in the valley.”
When I was a kid listening to the radio, I used to think all the performers singing were somehow standing in line…in the radio… …. waiting their turn to sign..then Dad took me to Wildwood park, Harrisburg, Pa & I saw 2 singers in person….I asked Dad… when are they going into the radio…”a kids mind “
My late husband told me that when he was tiny – maybe 4 or 5 – his mom took him to the movies. He thought that the movie they saw was the only movie they could ever see at that theater. Isn’t kid logic a magical thing?
Not holiday related but may explain my ongoing math problem. I thought the bank kept your money in your own shoebox there. My siblings remind me of this yet today.
We picked out our Christmas wishes from the Sears catalog. I actually thought that Santa and Sears worked together somehow!