I used to wonder when reading the obituary column how people always managed to die in alphabetical order.

diane

i used to belive the saying "kicked the bucket" meant that if you kicked a bucket you would die, its no surprise i fear buckets still, shame im a window cleaner.

window steve

I was a shy kid. My father and I were waiting to pick up food from a resturant and the man in front of us looked at me and said, "Hey there partner." He gestured his index finger and thumb like a gun as to pretend he was a cowboy. I thought I had just been shot by a "hand gun" and I would soon die. I was terrified and my father was embarassed to have raised such a wuss.

Ritz

When I was younger, I played a lot of a videogame called Sonic the Hedgehog. When you died in the game Sonic flew up and fell down off of the stage.

So I was convinced that when a person dies, they bounce up 30 feet into the air and fall down through the earth and disappear. I was sure disappointed when I learned the truth!

Anon

After somebody died, my sister kept hearing talk about "the body"; The body being taken here, the body being laid out there, the body being taken to the church, the body being buried there, etc. After many days, she quietly asked, "Mommie, but what about the head?"

Lauren D.

When I was five I thought that if I touched a toadstool and licked my finger I would die. One day I decided I wanted to die so I did just this. I found a toadstool in the garden, touched it and licked my finger. Then I went to bed. My sister asked why I had gone to bed and I told her I was going to die.

Anon

I used to believe that the purpose of a "wake" when someone died was one last attempt at trying to wake them up from the deep sleep that they were in. It confused me because at my grandfather's wake everyone spoke quietly, how would talking quietly wake them up? I just figured that he was a light sleeper, then again I was wrong!

He's Only Sleeping

My Uncle Paul died when I was seven years old, and my Grammie asked my older brother to be a pallbearer.

Grammie died shortly after Uncle Paul, and my mother again asked my older brother to be a pallbearer. Upon hearing this I immediately corrected her, "No Mommy - Donald was a pallbearer the LAST time, when Uncle Paul died. Don't you want him to be a Grammie-bearer THIS time?"

Despite the grief of their mother's death, I don't think that I have ever seem my mother and my aunt laugh so hard!

David Bugea

My dad died when I was 7 and was cremated. I didnt go to the funeral, but found out that cremated meant burnt, I thought they built a big bonfire and flung the body on. The worse thing, it wasnt until I was about 18 that I found out that it didnt happen like that !!

Anon

When I was about 5, I as writing with a pencil and poked myself in the leg on accident. Well, I had heard about lead poisoning and knew lead was what was in pencils, so I thought I had lead poisoning and was about to die. So I started crying and kissed all my stuffed animals goodbye and reflected on my terribly short life.

Nikki

When I was little, I thought only certain people died, maybe only the bad ones. Playing in the park one day a little boy told me "everybody dies". I didn't believe him, so I punched him ran upstairs and cried.

jro

When I was 6 my parents bought me a polo neck jumper in a plastic bag, which carried the warning "Danger, may cause suffocation to small children." I was amazed by my parents' lack of care in buying me such a dangerous item of clothing and congratulated myself that my ability to read had saved me. I was always sure to hold my breath whenever I put the jumper on.

Em

when i was about 5 my mom wanted to blow-dry my hair after my bath one evening. i was really stubborn and i wouldn't let her so she told me that people who go to bed with wet hair die. immediately, i let her dry my hair. i had a hard time going to sleep that night because of what she told me so i felt my hair just to make sure i was safe. i had 1 tiny spot of moisture in my hair and i thought i was going to die. i spent the next 20-30 minutes sobbing and saying good-night to everything in my room until my parents came in and my mom admitted to telling my a lie.

idiot kid

when i was little i used to think that once you died and were put in your coffin that you would still be alive and have a TV and Mini bar and all that untill i went to a funeral and discoverd otherwise

wee mel

I lived near a graveyard when I was young, and on some of the gravestones it just said R.I.P. I just read it as the word 'RIP', and so I thought that this meant they were killed by Jack the Ripper. When my nana died, her headstone had R.I.P on it. My parents hadn't told me she'd died of cancer, and I began yelling, 'But why would Jack the Ripper kill Nana?'

Esme

for a long time i believed that R.I.P. meant really important person. i was confused when i couldn't recognize the names on the graves that said r.i.p.

marty

When my mother first explained murder to me I didn't understand.
I already knew what to kill something meant, but when I asked my mother what the word "murder" meant she used the term "To take someone's life,"
I instantly thought that meant that murderers would kill people, take the insides out of their bodies, put their skin on like clothes and pretend to be them. Thus "taking" someone's life.
I was a little cautious around some people after that just in case they had been "murdered".

jack diddly squat

I used to beleive that the grease spots on our driveway directly under my bedroom window, were the squished remains of the previous tenants children, who had leaned over and fallen out of the window.

Teri

After thinking about it hard, my sister, aged about 6, asked, "Mummy, if people die standing up, can they use them again in shop windows?"

Alex

I used to believe that there where dead people in the bases of bouncy castles.

Anon