Misunderstanding of things as a child.

shannon12

Active Member
Okay. I'll share a story that's not Disney but, to me, is the ultimate story of not understanding something as a kid. I have red hair. When I was liiiittle my redheaded pigtails & smattering of freckles must have charmed the pants off random people because I got asked a lot by people I didn't know, "Where did you get that pretty red hair from?" Not understanding what I was being asked I gave the most logical answer I could think of: "KMart." I never understood the roars if laughter but whatever. The person asking always enjoyed that answer so I always gave it. Made sense to me, tho. Everything came from KMart then! LOL! ((BTW, my mother, 2 of her 4 siblings, & my grandfather all had red hair so that's where I got it!))
I Love that!! My 2 year old is a redhead, so I can't wait to hear what she tells people, they always ask where she got the red hair...
 

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
I remember standing in the queue at Adventure Thru Inner Space at Disneyland in 1968 when I was 6 years old and thinking how cool it was that we were gonna' be shrunk for the ride. I was more excited than nervous 'cause I had already seen plenty of other guests come off the ride "unshrunk" back to their normal sizes...! :p ;) :)
 

Worldlover71

Well-Known Member
For years after our first trip to WDW when I was 7, I thought the Magic Kingdom was on an island since you had to take a boat or monrail across the lake to get there. I'm kind of sorry I know better now. It made it even more magical.
 

danpam1024

Well-Known Member
I wanted to make a thread that identified an experience you or someone else may of had as a child when you went to the parks.

For example, when I was a small child I rode the TTA with my parents. In the Space Mountain section I saw two rockets full of people on each side of me going up the track and then heard them screaming as they went down. I did not realize that the other people were on a seperate ride. Being a rather nervous child I thought that they were just unlucky. I thought that they got on a different part of the TTA track that made you fall hard to the ground and possibly die. After riding it once I was deathly afraid of the TTA, and my parents could not convince me to ride it again. Until I got older of course.

A second example would be of my cousin Will. When Will was very small we rode PotC, and after the first drop the pirate captain (before he was transformed to Barbosa) screamed "fire at will!" Of course Will thought that the captain had ordered the cannons to fire at him and unconsolably cried the rest of the ride.

That being said, I know I am not the only one with experiences like this so feel free to share.
OMG that's so sad :'( How scary for you! I was always terrified of the HM- especially the candelabra floating in the hallway. I also thought that the hitchhiking ghosts somehow became a part of you when you left :(
 

AllyInWonderland

Well-Known Member
When I was little, when riding TTA and going through Space Mountain, I thought when the car sped up, that we were going to ride Space Mountain while still on TTA, and that scared me. :p

I used to be scared of the characters when I was little, especially the masked ones. Whenever I would wait for the parade to come on Main Street, I would be scared that a character like Captain Hook would come up behind me and scare me. I finally got rid of my fear when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and I was watching SpectroMagic. Doc came up to me and squeezed my hand. It kinda scared me at first, but then I started laughing and thinking about how sweet it was. Now I LOVE to meet characters.

I'm also still scared of loud noises, so as a toddler I would scream and cry during fireworks, or we would have to leave before it started. (That big booming voice on the speakers that announced the fireworks always startled me. Especially on the way to the Boardwalk from Epcot before Illuminations). Then I began to wear earphones to block out the sound on rides and during parades if I were brave enough to watch it. (Spectro is so loud!)
 

DfromATX

Well-Known Member
Okay. I'll share a story that's not Disney but, to me, is the ultimate story of not understanding something as a kid. I have red hair. When I was liiiittle my redheaded pigtails & smattering of freckles must have charmed the pants off random people because I got asked a lot by people I didn't know, "Where did you get that pretty red hair from?" Not understanding what I was being asked I gave the most logical answer I could think of: "KMart." I never understood the roars if laughter but whatever. The person asking always enjoyed that answer so I always gave it. Made sense to me, tho. Everything came from KMart then! LOL! ((BTW, my mother, 2 of her 4 siblings, & my grandfather all had red hair so that's where I got it!))

LOL! You're from TX, right? Thank goodness we don't have that horrible store anymore, but I sure remember my mom taking me there for school clothes as a kid. I swore then I would never torture my children! As it turned out, I had 2 sons who didn't care where I bought their clothes.
 

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
When I was in third grade we did our first trip to WDW, Feb of '72 and there was a ride about going to the moon. It was where SGE is now. I was terrified that we were actually going to be blasted off to the moon. Screaming and crying for the majority of the ride and totally ing my mom off. I think about that everytime we go to SGE
Hold up... EVERY time you go to SGE?? You mean you go more than once?????
 

Neph-Neph

Active Member
The only experience I have is being convinced that on Maelstrom, when you go backwards and stop just before the waterfall, I though every once in a while there would be a boat that wouldn't stop and you would go right back down over the waterfall. And I just knew it would be our boat it would happen to so I was very scared to ride. lol

OMG! I thought this same exact thing!! I wouldn't ride it for a very long time because of it!
 

Fantasmic

Well-Known Member
I used to think that there were 2 tracks on BTMRR.
I vividly remember nearly losing my jelly sandal over London in PPF (never mind that the ship's floor would have caught it) I was 5!
I remember being anxious (but not scared) about the ghosts following us home. (must have thought, cause they were Disney ghosts they would be nice)

We were in Disney once (not sure where, possibly Epcot) and I was having a hissy fit at a bee (I'm still scared of them) - until a nice gentleman told me that it was a Disney Bee, and Disney Bees will not hurt little girls!
 

Disvillain63

Well-Known Member
My DS was about to turn 3 on his first visit...of course, we'd been trying to potty-train him and he was being stubborn (so we thought). We told him a few months before we left that we wouldn't take him to Disney unless he was potty-trained (empty threat). No luck, he wasn't trained. After a few hours in MK, I whispered to my DH that I was going to take DS to change him...about that same time, I got a little tug on my shorts and I hear "Mommy, does Disney have a potty?" He was trained from that point on...never had an accident. Who knows how much sooner it might have been if we hadn't given him the 'deadline'.:rolleyes:
 

rickdrat

Well-Known Member
On my first trip back in 1976, I was just shy of 9 years old. Two particular memories stand out from the others. Like the OP, one involves the TTA (the PeopleMover at the time). I recall going through Space Mountain and seeing what I assumed were the "rockets" zooming, looping, and darting around in the dark. So fast to my impressionable eyes, that I swore from that moment that I would absolutely not be riding Space Mountain, and I didn't. Perhaps other members might better recollect what I'm refering to. I haven't ridden the TTA since and I truly don't know if what I saw was some effect or just my overactive imagination getting the best of me.

The second one was in the Hall of Presidents. Again, I had never been to a theme park before so everything was new to me. I certainly didn't know what Audio Animatronics were. I remember sitting in that darkened theater (why is it everythings in the dark? ;)) and swearing that those guys on stage were real people. I knew I saw one of them wrinkle his nose or perhaps scratch his chin, didn't I? In return visits years later, I found myself amazed at how easily I was duped.
 

Aurora1

Well-Known Member
So many of these stories sound SO familiar to our family!

Until I visited WDW at age 16 I had NEVER been on Haunted Mansion. I was convinced that it was a real haunted house and that I'd be terrified, which was not my idea of Disney! When I finally went on at age 16 I was so embarrassed that I had never been until that point!

When I was 7, my dad and uncle decided to take me on Alien Encounter (I think that was what it was called...)- now, considering the last story, I don't know what possessed them to think that was a good idea. Needless to say, after a 40 minute wait, they had a screaming, hysterically crying child that when they got off the ride! Nothing though that a few Mickey Premium Bars didn't solve!
 

Clamman73

Well-Known Member
Thought the monorails were a Maglev type of monorail...nope.

Always thought the Haunted Mansion ride was just within the house that you see...nope.

Looking at the astronauts in the ride vehicle outside of Space Mountain back then I thought I was doing the same thing...well maybe...
 

bethymouse

Well-Known Member
1971 2 years old:
I was scared to death of the cannons scene in POTC!:eek:
I cried all the way through HM, and at the end I was smiling because the "happy" ghost was going home w/ us.:)
I always thought IASW kids were real. I know weird huh?:eek:
I was convinced we were really "flying" on PP.:)
I never opened my eyes once on Snow White or Mr. Toad! I was scared to death of dark rides!:eek:
20,000 Leagues was so real to me. I never thought we'd "survive" the big octopus attack!:eek:
Hated the gun shot on the Jungle Cruise! I covered my ears!:eek:
 

Spikerdink

Well-Known Member
A second example would be of my cousin Will. When Will was very small we rode PotC, and after the first drop the pirate captain (before he was transformed to Barbosa) screamed "fire at will!" Of course Will thought that the captain had ordered the cannons to fire at him and unconsolably cried the rest of the ride.

That's classic!! I love that story! Do you laugh at that story now with him??
 

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