Every park that I went to as a kid had a sign that stated 'This Park Closes At Dark'. To me, that ment that the trees went home. Why else would the park close? The trees had to get home to thier families. I spent many hours begging to stay late at the park to find out where the trees lived.

Anacita

When I was a kid, I used to believe that giants were buried under hillsides. Whenever we would go on family outings in the car, I would always marvel at and try to count how many "Giants" grave we passed.

AMR

I believed that the rolling hills around our town were merely blankets covering sleeping dinosaurs that only came out at night to eat the trees.

Autumn

I used to believe that the smoke stacks on factory buildings were actually cloud machines. I believed that until I was about 8 and asked my uncle (who had recently gotten a job at one of the factories) how they decided which shapes to make them into.

Jess

My mom believed, when she was little, that we lived on the inside of the world. This belief stemmed from the fact that the sky is blue, and pictures of the Earth are mostly blue. So basically, she believed we were staring up at the Earth's shell.

Anon

I used to believe that all land floated on water. After all, when you drill down into the ground, you get water (oil never crossed my mind), hence that belief.

Loney B.

i used to believe that dead cows were hidden in all long grasses. for some strange reason i was petrified of touching a deceased cow in any way....but i could eat beef. :)

Anon

my mom used to believe that we all lived inside the world not outside it. that we were all enclosed in sky ball.

Anon

Once as a child I was on a woodland walk with my Sunday school class. At one point I asked if we were going up a certain rather steep hill. The teacher said no, because that was "too steep terrain". I thought she said "too steep to rain". So for quite some time, I thought that, wherever a hillside was sufficiently steep, it never rained.

Christina

When I was small the weather men used simple paper maps with bold lines dividing the states. I assumed these lines were represented in some way on the land as well. My picture of this was a strip of very dense forest that was full of wild and undiscovered animals. The borders between Canada, the United States and Mexico were very wild indeed because they were thicker lines on the map.

Anon

When I was little, like many kids, I was told to stay in our yard, and not wander too far. I thought this was to make sure I wouldn't go too far and fall off the edge of the world. But I thought I was really smart and thought, what about the kids in the yard next door? And the house next door to that, etc? Obviously they had the same rule and the edge of the world wasn't in their yard, since they hadn't fallen off. So it would be perfectly safe for me to go past our yard, and into theirs. I wondered when our parents would be smart enough to realize that, and let us go farther.

I also thought that once you DID get to the edge of the world, instead of a drop off, it was a wall with a door, and if you opened the door you'd find a dark space filled with wolves. I wanted to go exploring so I could find that door at the edge of the world, but I was too scared of the wolves.

trofholzwaffles

My father convinced my little brother it was "Mount Reindeer" not Mount Rainier.

K

When I was little I used to Belive that certin rocks were ancient dinsour teeth

Leah

I used to believe that long ago the dinosaurs got tired from migrating, laid down and died. That is how the Rocky Mountains were formed.

Bradon

I use to believe that where I saw the sky end is where the world ended and it was only just a few miles.

emily

When I learned in school that the middle of the earth was filled with lava, I demanded that my mom buy me new shoes with thicker soles to be as far away from the lava as possible.

Rachel

when i was young i used to believe that the sun goes down behind the mountains into the earth

confused

At one point in my pre-pre-adolescence (e.g. seven, eight, nine years old), I had a distinct interest in nature. I'd spend hours outside, just staring at stuff. One of the things I really admired was rocks -- I'd throw them as hard as I could against the sidewalk to crack them open, I'd paint them, I'd name them, I'd put them in a tub of water to see if they'd turn all smooth like river rocks. I was always looking for the perfect rock, so I could carry it around and say, "look, I've found the perfect rock". But finally, after realizing that this perfect rock must be in another state or country, I decided I should just make my own rock. So I gathered a bit of mud, rolled it into a ball, shaped it a bit, shaped it a bit more because I wanted it to be absolutely 100% perfect, then I set it outside on the sun-heated concrete retaining wall. I'd sit by that bit of mud for hours at a time, waiting for that glorious moment when the sun dried it up enough that it'd turn into my wonderful rock. Alas, though, when it did become as dry as it could, my perfect rock merely crumbled up and broke my spirits. However, the next day I was right back out there, molding another one.

Sandra Kay