I was afraid of bridges - particularly those over water. I was afraid they would fall down. I always used to hold my breath when we drove over a bridge because I thought that would make the car lighter.

medina

At the end of my childhood neighborhood, there was a house where an old lady lived. For some reason, a bunch of us kids got the idea that she was a witch! Maybe because she lived alone with her cats, or something, who knows? There was also a slab of sidewalk where someone had put their shoe prints before the cement dried, and one kid said that the witch had caused another boy to disappear, leaving only his footprints behind.

Vivienne

When I was little there were a signs inside the trams saying “No smoking or spitting allowed”. I understood about noisy spitting but I could never understand how someone could smoke out loud…

Dora

I used to believe that the statue of the WWI soldier in front of the high school was the Statue of Liberty. I don't know why.

John B.

When I was young I would get on a swing and launch myself as high as I could thinking if I jumped too high Superman would swoop down and catch me. I stopped believing that when I jumped off a swing got really high and racked myself on a fence.

Bubs

When I was little my mom always told me never to walk outside barefooted. One summer day I touched the street (twas scorching) then I realized that if I walked on the street barefooted I would be engulfed in flames.

Bubs

There was a USAF military base near our house and my mom and aunts used to always warn one another and us, "Watch out for the airmen." I had this vision of a huge child-eating alien wearing an astronaut's helmet walking around downtown, and wondered why the government didn't stop it.

Stacy

The neighbor kids told me that if you stand too close to a cement truck while the back is turning you would get sucked up the chute.

Anon

I used to believe that george morlan was an ice cream cone. So whenever we drove by the goerge morlan plumbing store i would ask to stop for ice cream but my mom could never figure out why.

Anon

Just down the road from our house, there used to be a depot where they made, sold and hired out scaffolding. This company had an advert on the side of the adjacent bridge which carried the railway line over the main road. To allow double decker buses to pass under this bridge, the road dips to a lower level. The advert on this bridge used to read “Sale+hire”, indicating that you could buy or hire scaffolding from this depot. I thought it was an instruction to motorists to “sail higher”, i.e. return to the normal height when you reach the other side of this bridge where the dip in the road level comes to an end.

Alan, Sheffield

I believed as a child that if you stepped in wet cement that you had to take your shoes and socks and go barefooted for a day.

Mark

when i was about 5-6..there was a building under construction near my school..i somehow felt it was a corrupt prison from hong kong,and that it was my mission to save people from inside

suraj rawal

i used to belive that every time i drank out the water fountain i would get the water the person before me drank. i don't know how i came up with this but i never told anyone about this strange conclusion!!!!!

ibba3

When I was a little girl living in Brazil, my cousin, who was around my age, would tell me that if you threw a coin in the sewer a doll would come up, like a vending machine or something. Go figure.

It never worked...

I grew up in Los Angeles. Once, when I was about 4, I saw an opening ceremony for a new freeway on the news. For a while after that, I believed that the the freeway was closed every night, and that mayor came out every morning to cut the ribbon and open it.

Anon

When my friend, Katy, was younger, she thought that if she watered the sidewalk, it would get longer by the next day.

...What a dummy..

MNH

I live in a block of flats, and we have two elevators. I once was really afriad of elevators (actually, I still am ^^') and I always got freaked out when I had to use one. But I still liked one of them and I named it Baneczek. And I would always talk to it (in my thouhgs, thank God!) when I was inside. I told it that it was a pretty, nice lift and that I like it sooo much. I did that becouse I believed thad if the elevator won't like me enough, it would fall.
And still, although I'm 17, when I am in a lift and one of my friends says sometging mean, like "Move already you stupid elevator!" I always get scared and go like "Are you mad!? Never insult an elevator that you're in! God elevator, we love you..." Really, I actually do that. Take my advice and never insult a livt! For me it worked - it never fell ^^.

Maja ^_^