OT - Childhood Mistakes - For Ginger

[lucky_kari]

Ginger:
> I don't remember Eileen's list of childhood mistakes.  
>Eileen, could 
> I entreat you to repost?

I thought all dogs were pitbulls.

I also thought the U.S.S.R. was a pyramid scheme cult, not a country.

I thought "the Government" was the title of Canada's unelected 
dictator.

I thought that the political party my parents belonged to was a
military organization that was going to eventually march on Ottawa.

I thought my local MP was a murderer.

I thought the teenagers at the local playground were terrorists who
had blown up a bus in Vancouver.

I thought a display protesting the introduction of the General Sales
Tax, showing boots sticking out of a toilet (I guess to show that the
GST would flush Canada down the train)was some real person who had met
an unfortunate end. After that, I was deathly afraid of toilets.

I thought our mayor ate babies.

I thought that my friend's father worked for Canada's intelligence
agency, and that enemy spies were after him. (He worked for a security
system company.)

etc. etc. etc. etc.

My first real memory of the outside world was that failed coup when
Yeltsin stood on the tank. I feel robbed of my fall of my Berlin Wall
memory, which everyone else my age seems to possess.
And then there was the Gulf War, in which I hadn't the slightest idea
what really happened, except that I was quite sure Saddam Hussein was
going to attack our city soon, and World War III was beginning.
Whenever I saw anyone wearing camoflauge on TV, I knew the end was 
nigh.

Oh, I lived in an exciting world. You can tell that my parents talked
a lot about current affairs, and I sort of pasted it together.

So, while I may be disillusioned, the world has actually improved for
me. I gather this is the opposite of most people's experience.

*Addendum 2005* Many people have asked me since I posted this what my 
parents possibly could have said about our MP to make me think he was 
a murderer. They didn't, actually. They voted for him. But his name 
was Kilgore. So, there you are. 

On the other hand, I'm sure they said a lot of awful things about our 
mayor. 

Eileen