I used to believe that when you died, you just layed in your coffin forever, and I was scared because I thought I would be bored.

Brenden

I was always told that people go to heaven when they die. I thought that when they died, their bodies physically floated all the way up to heaven. I remember hoping that no one ever died in a car because then there would be a big hole in the roof of the car after they went to heaven.

Nikki

I thought that you died when someone took your picture, that you were somehow frozen, flattened out and hung on the wall.... My parents had arranged for a formal portrait of me and my sister -- I couldn't imagine why they were doing such a thing, and I was very sad and scared. The photographer came to the house, set up his lights and things, took the shot, and... I was still there! What a relief!

T

When my grandma died when I was 5, I was the only one not crying my eyes out. The reason was because I thought that you would go to Heaven for a week and then come back. I was prooved wrong. :P

Vegafanatic

I used to believe that serial killers would jump out of cereal boxes and kill me...

Amanda

[Grand Rapids, Mi, circa 1953]

In first grade, a classmate said that she liked me and was going to visit me on Saturday. I played on front of my house for hours looking out for her arrival, but she never came.

On Monday, I found that she had been killed crossing a busy street that her traveling to my house would have taken her. I was young enough to believe that I had some responsibility and had some ambiguous concern.

Later, the city installed a "WALK/DON'T WALK" signal along with a new traffic control signal at the intersection at which she died.

My macabre experience resonably linked the two events and I realized that all traffic lights were put up only after someone was killed.

don fitzsimons

I used to believe that meat was obtained from animals who died a natural death.

When I attended a funeral with my family and was told about cremation I assumed that the person was being cooked for eating. I was not able to eat meat for some time after as I was always concerned that I was potentially eating a human.

Donna

I was around 5 years old and was watching on TV an annual broadcast tribute to JFK. My big brother told me that I had killed him and that I had just blocked it out. I believed him and became hysterical. Mind you, JFK died in 1963 and I was born in 1967...

Angee

When I was about 6 years old I got up early one morning to draw. I was using the pens in my stepdads office and found some white-out (the white liquid that you use to coverup any mistakes). I used HEAPS of the white-out on my drawings until I saw that the warning on pen which said 'Excessive inhalation of white-out fumes may cause death'. This warning stopped me in my tracks because the whole room smelt of the white-out. I began to cry hysterically because I thought that once you inhale the fumes it takes a couple of hours to kill you. I ran into my parents bedroom to tell them that I was going to die only to find my stepdad on top of my mum 'doing the deed'. They both looked over at me and yelled that I need to knock and for me to get out. I ran out and lay down on my bed feeling extremely depressed that I was going to die and that my parents didn't care. Eventually my mum came in (dressed in a bathrobe) and after I explained my iminent death she told what the warning label actually meant.

Quite a way to catch your parents having sex, isn't it?

Chirko

I used to believe that the orange and white barrels filled with sand on exit ramps were to cover up dead bodies and soak up the blood from the road after automobile accidents.

Anon

As a child, my sisters and I were afraid to visit my grandmother if it was snowing out. Because we were afraid of having to stay over in her bed. Our reasoning? First Grandpa slept with her.... he died. Then her poodle started sleeping in the bed with her..... and died (very old dog). We really thought that if you sleep with our grandmother... you'll die.

frank

My grandfather had been a gardener all his life and after he retired he taught me a great deal about gardening; tomatoe seed goes in, tomatoe plant comes out. Rose seeds go in, rose bushes come out. I thought it was a miracle.
He died when I was 8 and when they buried him I was mortally afraid that in a few months time, there would be a 'gradfather tree' on the cemetary, with copies of grandpa on the braches.

Anon

on grave stones when it said "R.I.P." i always thought that was their name. when i saw it on a lot of graves i thought, "wow a lot of people name their kids R.I.P."

michelle

I used to believe that the wax to make candles came from dead peoples ears. I think someone told me candle wax was a man made substance.

David

when i was a kid we whre told that hoping around a chair on one foot with only one sock on meant that someone was going to die .

Daniel copeland calif,u.s.

When I was little-little (3? 4?) way back in the crime-drama-and-violent-cartoon-filled 70's, I used to completely and utterly believe that if you laid down with your arms straight out to the side and your legs slightly spread (think classic "dead person pose"), and then closed your eyes and stuck your tongue out the side of your mouth, you'd drop dead instantly. I thought that when someone "died in their sleep" it meant that they had accidentally posed the death pose while they were asleep, and died. I was TERRIFIED that I'd do it to, so I started sleeping on my stomach. (For some reason, I believed the pose only worked if you were on your back.)

To this day (many, many, many years later), I still sleep on my stomach.

propchick

A friend of my mum's had gotten divorced but aged about 9 I didn't know that, I just knew the guy's wife had disappeared and so when I used his bathroom one day I sw that the shower curtain was pulled shut so obviously my mum's friend had murdered his wife and left her body in the bath.

Scaley

My Boyfriend told me that when he was little he thought that when people died God would hide the bodies behind the washing machine.

Afriendofafriend

I was a kid and I went for a ride with dad in his red car. he was listening to the news. they said something about some guy commiting suicide. I thought they said that the guy commited sewer side and had no clue what it was. I thought it had something to do with an open manhole!

Anon

i used to think that people didnt die i just thought when they turned 100 they started all over agian thats also why i thought old people were so short.

Zach Tennant ,WV