I used to believe that the dummies in the windows of clothes shops were real people and they had to stand still all day.

Anon

My parents used to take me to the mall a lot when I was a kid. The mall used to look a lot bigger on the inside than it did from the outside (at least it did to my 4-year-old eyes). My dad told me this was due to the fact that a man who worked for the mall would punch a button to shrink the building down at the end of the day. I believed him. So whenever I would whine about not wanting to leave the mall, my dad would tell me that we only had 5 minutes before "the man" pushed the button, so we had better get out of the mall quickly before it shrank and trapped us inside.

Tom

Counting: I used to think that 50% off of an item on sale, plus 50% off that meant it was free.

CV Sharkey

I kept seeing signs in store windows that said "CLEARANCE SALE", and for years I wondered who this guy Clarence was and why he was always having a sale.

Katrin

For a few years in early childhood, I thought that all places that played Muzak had a full orchestra above the ceiling. I imagined them all sitting up there playing their instruments, tucked out of sight.

T

I used to be confused by signs in stores that said "sale" or "on sale". I thought to myself, "if this stuff is 'on sale', does it mean that you can't buy all this other stuff? And if you can't, why do they have the other stuff in here anyway?"

John

Hate to disagree with Anon, but lbs stood for libs or libbies. I was never too sure which. I knew there were pounds, but you didn't use those in stores. Just when you weighed people.

Rick

My uncle convinced me that elevator doors wouldn't reopen until a crew of men quickly changed all the furniture.

Barry

I used to believe the abbreviation lb. stood for a unit of measurement called an "ilible". So, I'd be at the grocery store with my mom thinking we were getting 2 "ilibles" of something.

Anon

When I was a kid, I was afraid of escalators in department stores. I thought that once I reached the top or bottom I would get sucked in.

Rachel

I believed that you could get sucked into the gap at the end of the escalator, the moving stairs disappear into the floor. I was terrified of going on the escalator and would walk backwards on it until I worked up the guts to take a running jump over it. These days I sometimes let my feet slide off the escalator onto the ground just to prove to myself that I can't fit through the gap even if I try.

Tania

my mother used to play jokes on me all the time. This is a good example:

We were living in germany, my pops stationed at an Army base over there. Me and Mom go out to the Post Exchange (for you civilians out there, think the military version of a Wal-Mart)

A bunch of men were doing excercises. They were stretching out their quads by placing their hands against a wall of a small building. To anyone, especially a gullble child, it looks like they are, with all their might, trying to hold up the wall

My mom says, "During World War II, American bombers destroyed most of this area. Ever since, they have had to have people hold up the walls so the building doesnt collapse"

For at least 6 months, every time i saw soldiers doing stretching exercises, i totally believed that they were actually holding up the wall

as a sidenote: my mother did this so often, by the time i turned 10, i didnt believe ANYTHING she said. To this day.

josh

so i'm 7 and looking through this mail order catalogue full of high-tech gizmos and wanting most of it but thinking i'd never save enough money for any of it. after all, it was all over $100. then i saw it. some items said "rush" and then a much smaller amount. so i asked my aunt what that meant and when she explained i was perpelexed.
why would anyone spend 100 on something and have it take a month to be delivered when you could just spend 7 and get it in less than a week?

scott f

When I was a kid and you used to see posters in empty shop windows saying "Bill Posters will be Prosecuted" I thought Bill Poster was a person and must of been really naughty to warrant so many notices put up about him!!

Fairy Snuff!