When I first saw film footage of an earthquake, I believed that the earth split apart right around the world and people and cars fell in to the centre of the earth before it closed again.
I used to imagine falling into the crack and not being able to climb back out before it closed on me.

Simon

I live in Las Vegas, where the only natural 'disaster' that happens is ocassional flooding. About two years ago (I was 15) after-shock tremors of an earthquake in California shook our home, and I woke up and my bed was moving. I was absolutely convinced it was Gremlins trying to carry my bed away. I called absolutely terrified to my dad who was in the hallway, and he opened the door and I jumped from the end of my bed into the hallway.

About a month later a house on our block blew up (literally) I never even woke up. And apparently it was a whole lot worse than the aftershock that scared me half to death.

Pandy

Earthquakes were when a huge cavernous crack opened in the earth. It swallowed everyone and everything near it, and then closed up again.

Cyn

To me, an 'earthquake' was a giant round stone, like a millstone or the big round stone in front of a Biblical grave. The 'earthquake' rolled on things and destroyed them.

joy

I used to think the Earth was going to explode eventually. I was certain because if I put my ear to the floor, I heard a deep low rumbling. It was a serious sound to my inexperienced ears.

a former child

i had a terrible fear of earthquakes when i was a kid.....just one 30 second report on the news about some tremor in CA, which was like on the other coast from where i was, would send me into a crying fearful panic...just the thought of having the solid earth break apart under me would have me freaking out

raequel

I used to think that the people who went around saying the world would end soon actually knew what they were talking about. They had the world ending before I had a chance to grow up and it scared me. I would pray and ask God not to end the world until I had a chance to become an adult.

Lee

I used to believe that earthquakes regularly opened up big cracks in the ground, people fell in, and they snapped shut again. Like a big clam made of earth and rocks. So I thought there should be a memorial for all the people who died suddenly in earthquakes. Some of them were probably the only casualties of little aftershocks, too.

blnkfrnk

I used to live in a trailer and was terrified that in the case of a tornado or hurricane that my house (with me in it) would just blow away altogether. Finally my neighbors gave me the key to thier basement so I could go there when it was windy! Wow-Concrete!

Patty, NY

I used to believe the side railings in public (handicapped) restroom stalls were there just in case of an earthquake. Wanting to be careful, if I wasn't allowed to use that particular stall, I would 'go' really, really fast - in fear that a quake would hit while I was indesposed. (Point to note: I grew up in East Tennessee - and have never felt an earthquake.)

Maria S.

My father used to tell us a story about being in a tornado in Coffeyville, Kansas when he was a boy. His father was a mailman, and my dad told us that during the tornado, his father ran home "leaping over telephone poles." Having seen the Wizard of Oz in its first release, I mixed the movie images with my father's memories, and imagined my little grandfather leaping over the tops of upright telephone poles in the middle of Kansas. Hadn't cows and men in rowboats and a witch on a bike flown through the air in the movie? This was such a strong image that it wasn't until I was about 18 that I realized, "Hey, wait a minute...those poles he jumped were lying on the ground, blown over by the tornado."

Jan F.

When I was little, we passed through an area in Florida that had just had a lot of hurricane damage. A tall building had a lot of broken windows replaced, and each new window had an "X" across it. (I still don't know why). At the time, when I asked my dad, he said the hurricane did that. He meant the hurricane broke out the windows and they had to be replaced, but I thought he meant that the hurricane had a big crayon that marked an X on each window as it passed. How stupid of me.........

Laura H., Kentucky USA

I used to believe that the world was a snow globe that some little kid had in thier room in another universe and when the kid shook the snow globe it caused earthquakes and snow on earth.

Emma

When I first learned about the hole in the ozone layer, I thought it was a big hole in the earth. I thought people were throwing thier trash in it and when they did a big earthquake would cause it to grow bigger.

Anon

I grew up in earthquake country (northern California). For some reason I always woke up in the night before earthquakes hit, some instinct gaind from having always been there with earthquakes happening so frequently. I though I caused the earthquakes, becasue I was awake, or rolled over, or pulled up the covers. I couldn't understand how I always woke up a good few minutes before they came.

Anon

I used to believe that if I rocked myself to sleep I wouldn't feel earthquakes, and if I couldn't feel them then I couldn't be hurt by them. I may have figured out this wasn't the case, but I still rock myself to sleep!

Anon

That hurricanes were big truckers who drove around causing damage because noone was big enough to stop them. This came from them having peoples names and seeing an image on TV of a trucker getting into a truck to clear some wreckage after a hurricane hit

Grant