When I was little, I was always happy to have the top bunk so that in case a volcano erupted nearby, then I would be safe from flowing lava.

I grew up near Chicago.

Frannie

When I was about 5 I was terrified of getting run over by a glacier. For some reason I thought they moved about 70 miles per hour and I could get caught under one and die.

glacierboy

I heard about volcanos originating from cracks in the Earth's surface. I was scared that the cracks in my driveway at home would turn into a volcano, I would frequently check them to see if they looked any bigger.

Mark

Growing up in the SF bay area, earthquakes were not uncommon, but there was an especially big one in 1989. A few years after the quake of my friends confessed that she caused it: she had been playing with an abandoned cash register in a store, and her mom told her to stop and that if she didn't, really bad things would happen. She pushed a red button on the register one last time, and just after she pushed it, the earthquake began. for years she believes that she had caused the earthquake.

Anon

When I was about 8,a tornado hit my house so we had to go live with my grandmother for a few months while our house got re-built and the reporters came over to interview us. I was mad about having to move, but I was most upset about the fact that the whole time, I thought the tornado was just a really angry man that just got so angry he spun around really fast until he would spin so fast he sucked things up. There is actually a quote of me in the newspaper that says I thought the tornado was an angry man...and my whole family made fun of me.

Anon

When I was little my Father told me that one day the sun would grow really, really big and then get really, really small and disappear and then that would mean the end of the earth. Every day after that I watched the sun rise and set. At noon the sun would be so small! I thought I was witnessing the end of the world and wondered why no one else was as upset as I was! I didn't get much sleep at night back then.

Kris P

When I was about three or four, we had a summer of very severe thunderstorms, with hail, several tornados and other things. My mother would send us all down to the basement if a cloud so much as looked like a funnel, and I got the idea that this was because a tornado would knock on your front door, and if you answered it, then it would blow your house away.

Obviously we were hiding in the basement so that the tornado wouldn't think we were home.

Icefire

I used to think that the world was a person, and that earthquakes were caused by the world farting. It only seemed natural then, for me to asume that volcano's were the world being sick.

Confused

When I was about 3 i was over at my neighbor's a lot because they were friends with my mom...one day i was over there and my friend Chrissy who was about 10 years older than me said, "We have to get you home...there might be a tornado coming.." I didnt know what a tornado was so in my mind i thought of a word that sounded like tornado and i came up with Potato, so for a long time when it was windy outside I would stand there waiting to see a Big Potato on a Bicycle coming around the corner and chasing us until we got inside...haha

GabZ

Because of the Wizard of Oz, I thought that everyone who lived in Kansas died from tornados. When I found out that friends were moving there, I became hysterical wondering why they would want to move somewhere death surely awaited them.

CCB

I used to believe that tornados were the giant killer tomatoes from the movie "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and whenever we had a tornado warning I would run through the house screaming "The tomatoes are commin', the tomatoes are commin'"

Tammy

Ok this isn't mine... my sister used to believe that a tornado was a giant potato that came out of the ground. She thought that it would rumble out of the ground and roll over all the houses and things. She was always so scared when someone said that a tornado was coming. She would ask why everyone didn't just stop growing potatoes so then we wouldn't have the problem and no one had any idea what she was talking about. I guess potato and tornado sound the same. LOL

B

I used to believe that when there was a tornado watch, you were supposed to sit down and watch the tornado.

Kay

During tornado warnings, my brother, mother and I would go in the basement, and Dad would stay upstairs. I thought he was too heavy to get blown away.

Ryan

When I was a kid and we had a warning on TV about an "isolated" tornado, I thought it was a tornado made out of ice so I'd go to bed with my gloves and coat on in case the "ice-olated" tornado hit.

Jimmer

I used to believe that if there was an earthquake and if you were in a church, the earthquake wouldnt do anything to the church

Alex

During the big hailstorm of '97 I was at my friends place and the roof started leaking, and everyone was rushing around with pots and pans to collect the water, and i thought they had no water to cook with so they were taking the opportunity to collect some!

Magz

I used to think that tornados and tomatoes were the same thing. I was watching a show about growing tomatoes, and they were showing a tomato cage. I thought a tomato cage was used to catch a tornado so it doesn't destroy anything.

TB Samurai

My dad told me that we were going to have a huge earthquake soon and California was going to break off and fall in the water. I was traumatized thinking that we were all going to die soon until my mom found me crying and set me straight.

Kimberly

When i heard the word "tornado" i thought that people were saying "tomatoe" and when i saw houses flattened by "tomatoes" i thought that big pieces of tomatoes dropped down on peoples houses.

Abbey