We live near some TV and radio towers that blink red. When it is foggy they cannot be seen. I usually only notice them at night, this I always thought they were ladders that were lit up so people who died would find the ladder to climb to heaven. When I asked my mom why God choose red for the ladder instead of blue, she was mystified about how I came up with the whole idea. Recently, she passed away so now when I pass the towers while driving at night, I think of her.

Sam

I had a babysitter who warned all us kids not let the crumbs from our doughnuts to fall on the floor of her van, or her husband would "kill her". I imagined us all fending for ourselves, no babysitter to take us to the bathroom or give us snacks. I was scared to death.

Erin

when i was a child, and people asked me where my grandparents lived, i used to just smile vaguely and point my finger to the sky, since the only thing i really knew was that i had to take a plane to get there (they lived up north). in norwegian, the expression for "the sky" and "heaven" is the same (himmelen), so every time i did the finger pointing, people used to say "poor thing" and pat me on the head with a sad look upon their faces.

junie :)

My brother told me that anyone with an arm band, like the ones bartenders used to wear in old western movies, murdered his brother. So, I thought that anyone wearing any kind of bracelet high on the arm; around their bicep, murdered their brother. In the seventies, these bracelets were very popular among women, so I thought I was often surrounded by murderers.

Shelly Rankin

When my great-grandmother died, my parents told me to not be sad because she was going to a better place where she would always be happy and be with the people she loved. Well...it sounded so nice that I decided I'd join her....by hitching a ride in her coffin. I waited till the viewing part of the ceremony was over and no one was really paying attention, then climbed in. If my uncle hadn't been late to pay his final respects and opened up the casket, I just might've been an unsuspecting passenger on my great-grandmothers last voyage.

Man with issues from childhood.

When I was little I used to beleive that the food you ate always stayed in your stomach. And eventually you died because the food kept piling up until you choked on it and died.

A.J. Danforth

When I was younger, the prayer that goes "and if I die before I wake, I pray to God my soul to take" used to terrify me. Every night I'd be afraid of dying in my sleep, so I'd never say that part of the prayer. Eventually I realized that if I slept with my hand in front of my nose and mouth, I would be able to feel it when I stopped breathing and would wake up in time to stop myself from dying.

Anon

I always believed at 12am, all the dead people would come alive and eat anyone that was still awake. I can only imagine which parent told me that one.

Organick

When i was younger i thought R.I.P on graves was a persons name, i always wondered why so many Rips died.

Jess

When i was little, i used to think that when you bought your grave plot, you bought a house in heaven to live in too!!!!

Anon

I used to believe that a wake was something you go to to try to bring the dead person back to life.

Anon

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

[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

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

One day me and my grandma passed by a cemetary and i asked her what it was and she said it was where they buried dead peoples bodies. So after that i thought that they buried the bodies and the family kept the head!

=P

when I was a child, I believed that I could not die if I had a life insurrance.

connie

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

Amanda