My childhood beliefs

 I've been thinking a lot lately on my childhood outlook on life. What were things that you believed as a child?

-My mother always tells me the story that when we moved away from Germany to Ottawa when my twin sister and I were three, we were under the impression that Ottawa was on a different planet. And what is a jet plane but a spaceship? (Also: were we that wrong?)

-I didn't understand the difference between "erase" and "wash". I remember once when my little brother scribbled all over a colouring book of mine in permanent marker. When my pink eraser wouldn't work, I filled up the bathroom sink with water and dumped the book in, assuming that the purple and yellow lines would come right off. I was sorely mistaken, and had a dissolved colouring book. I was not happy that this hadn't worked. 

-Cars had personalities, and their headlights were their eyes. I still judge cars this way: if the "eyes" are too big, I think it looks dopey. If a car looks "mean", I don't like it. There are certain vehicles that I simply will never consider buying because on some subliminal level I still think of them as having personalities like this.