Once when we were in the woods, my father said he wanted to show me a gum tree. He led me over to a small tree that had pieces of Dentyne gum stuck to the branches. I don't know if he taped them there or hung the wrappers from the branches some way, but I was young enough that I believed what I saw: gum grew on trees. Another time he said, "Let's look in the creek to see if any pop washed down there." He then led me down to a creek where he must have stuck some soda earlier to cool. He was always playing tricks like this. I think it wasn't so much that he was a prankster as that he wanted the world to be a magical place.

John Clinbrohf

I noticed that chewing gum came in packs of 5 sticks of gum, making it hard to share gum evenly with your friends. I concluded it was part of a conspiracy to force kids to learn how to do fractions and division! This conclusion was reinforced when I observed that the big gum packs came with 17 sticks of gum!

Kdees

When I was young I used to think that "sugar-free" chewing gum meant there was a special offer, where you could get a free bag of sugar if you sent off the wrapper!

Anon

When I was a child my cousin and I would swallow our gum and we were told that it would stay for years and years in our stomach and if we had too much we would die. So, we would eat paper thinking that the gum would stick to the paper and come out the other end.

Anon

When I was a kid, I asked my mom what happened to the chewing gum that I spit out in the grass. She told me that the birds ate it. So, I went on for years imagining the birds chewing gum and blowing bubbles.

Rebecca

As a child I was told that If I swallowed chewing gum it would wrap around my umbilical cord and destroy any chances of me having a child. I was also told that If I did get pregnant that the baby would come out with different colors of bubble gum stuck to it's head.

addicted to swallowing gum

my sister once told me that my eyeballs expelled air, so if i were to chew up some bubblegum and place it over my eye and blink a whole bunch, i could blow a bubble. i thought that would be the coolest thing ever so i tried it... needless to say, i had gum stuck in my eyelashes, and eyebrows for days... i will never forgive her for that...

Rebecca

Remember how your parents told you that if you fell asleep with gum in your mouth, you would wake up and it would be in your hair? Well I used to believe that this occurred through a process of the gum seeping through the head and then coming out of your hair folicles. So, one night I fell asleep with gum in my mouth. I woke up at some time that night and became afraid that the gum would seep through my head and get in my hair, so I took it out and set it on my pillow. Needless to say, I woke up in the morning with gum in my hair.

Gonzo

I used to believe that if you swallowed chewing gum, when you farted, you would blow a bubble out your butt.

Bubble Butt

I used to see the commercials for Juicy Fruit gum that advertised "the taste will really move you." Finally I convinced my mom to buy this gum for me and as I stood completely still in the kitchen, I popped in a piece of gum, and waited for the gum to move me. Needless to say, I was standing still awhile.

Susan

When I was about 2 or 3, the shop across the street from my house sold these flavoured bubblegum fthings like banana to even chocolate milkshake, i think it was about 42 flavours they had and the greatest of all it was each one of them had a different colour wrap, depending on the flavour. So with a bit of help from the nanny me would go to the shop and id get at least 3 gums a day and of course id end up swallowing it - just because it tasted SO GOOD that i couldnt resist myself to do it -. Thing is though, my 2 older sisters (9 and 18 years old) would tell me the gum was gonna get stuck in my stomach and that i would get such a big belly that my parents were gonna find out i had been eaten gum all day. So the ONLY and MARVELOUS solution -according to my "caring" sisters was to take a tablespoon of cooking oil to "grease it all down" and "release" the stuck bubblegum from my sytem.

This carried on for about 3 weeks - and i agreed to it just because i loved bubblegum so much - until i told the nanny my stomach hurt and that i kept having diarrheas, both my sisters were grounded and forced to eat something nasty like broccoli everyday for 3 weeks.

PS: i still swallow gum... and im 23

Pilar

When I was about 5 (in the mid 70s) there was a Juicyfruit gum commercial in which people danced around and picked packs of gum off of a giant Juicyfruit tree. I dug a hole in our backyard, buried a pack of Juicyfruit in it, and faithfully watered it for weeks before my mom finally set me straight.

Lisa

I think this stemmed from the belief that when you swallow watermelon seeds you would grow a water melon in your stomach (which of course some evil grown up told me). Somehow I applied this theory to gum, but it was obvious that it wouldn't grow in my stomach..that would just be stupid! So instead I picked a perfect spot to plant my gum. Everyday I went out to water it waiting for it to sprout. I soon moved from that place but didn't give up on my tree. Iwould beg my mom to drive by even years later to see if my gum tree had grown. I really thought I was onto something...I mean imagine how much money you would save if you grew your own gum

Melinda Boulder, Co

I had this bad habit of swallowing my chewing gum and my dad used to tell me that if I keep doing it, a balloon would pop out when I farted.

J

when i was young i used to believe that if you swallowed chewing gum, it would get all stuck around your rib cage. i once cried when i swallowed some with fear of it happening.

Scott Davenport

I used to have the hardest time with the concept of 'Sugar Free' chewing gum. I wasn't sure whether it meant you got free sugar with the gum, or if it was just extra sweet.

My friend went to this camp called 'Sugar Free Kids'. I had an especially hard time with that one.

Amanda

When I was little, my mom would tell us that chewing gum helped with car-sickness, just to shut us up in the car and such. It was only in my early twenties that I found out it was all a lie. What gets me is that to this day, whenever I feel carsick, my first thought is to get some gum!

M.E.

My friend once told me that if you swallowed your gum, and if u had a baby, the baby would come out with gum on its head! haha i believed it as well!
xx

emilyy

I used to believe that if you swallowed bubble gum and then hiccuped, you would slowly fill up with bubbles on the inside until they came out your mouth and nose and ears

Anon

My mother has an irrational hatred of bubblegum/chewing gum so I was brought up to believe that it was bad and the old story that if you swallow it, you'll basically die. So one day as I was taking my life in my hands, chewing some gum, it accidentally flew out of my mouth, rolled across the ground and was quickly eaten by a Jack Russell terrier, I panicked and ran off. For years I carried around the guilt of being a dog killer and I could never tell anyone because I was so ashamed. The thing is, I am still not 100% sure the dog did survive the incident, though I am pretty sure it would take more than that to kill a dog, wouldn’t it?

Paulo