when I was a kid of less than 10y I thought I was connected to my home with an invisible sort of elastic band and I had to be careful as to how many times I took a bend, so as not to get tangled with my "cord" ] afraid of not being able to return home properly if I did. And when my mum chatted with her neighbours and I stood aside waiting till she wanted to go back home, I often got very cross when she (or the neighbour) walked over or through my invisible cord. Bizar isn't it?

Sheila Na Gig

When I was in junior high I was on a baseball team. We had practice every Thursday. Well, one Thursday I went to the park early, and the gate was closed. I had to think for a moment if I was allowed to open it and as soon as I did, really loud echoing sirens started to go off. I was really scared that I alerted some kind of security system and was going to be arrested until I realized that every other Thursday, because our city has a lot of refineries, alarms and sirens go off in the afternoon as some kind of emergency test, and you can hear them across the whole city. Thankfully, that's all that it was and I didn't get thrown in jail for trying to get into a park.

Tater

In my old neighborhood where I lived when I was little, there was an old man that lived in the house across the street. He would always play a really loud organ at night, and I thought that inside his house was Dracula and Elvira and other scary things that would wake up and roam the streets whenever he played the organ. This really freaked me out, especially at Halloween.

Tater

When I was really young, I used to have a fear of under-tunnels.[like underground short-cuts to the train]. I used to believe that if you walked underground, you would disturb drawfs working [like in snow white in the diamond mines]. And I thought the drawfs would then torture whoever who disturbed them. Pretty far-fetched huh? But I was really afraid of undergrounds then that I would discourage my mom to walk through them and walk the long instead. She never understood why though...

felicia

I used to believe when I was little that if you passed an American Flag at this one tall building you would have to be silent or George Washington would shoot his cannon at you.

R.H.

When I was a toddler, I remember a TV information film about road safety which was about the Green Cross Code man, who magically appeared to help you cross the road safely. At first I thought he actually existed and he would appear if you tried to cross the road carelessly. But I soon realised that the Green Cross Coad was Stop, Look, Listen and Think.

Anon

The old Sydney suburb of Balmain, where I was a child, had long been an almost self-sufficient town, with it's own Town Hall, Courthouse, Police Station, Fire Station, large Post Office, ferry, tram and bus services and a number of sporting facilities. It also had long rows of shops, three cinemas, four Primary schools, three secondary schools, a major hospital, several big churches (the Roman Catholics with their own convent and seminary). There was a major shipbuilding dockyard where my grandfather worked, a coalmine, several large factories and a big power station, together with many other enterprises. As a little kid I assumed that all suburbs were like that, and was horrified to visit relatives in places just full of houses and where all the people seemed to do was go there to sleep!

Swanny

weii this isn't my belief....its my cousins.you see my parents used to tell that the meanig of ATM was "Another Trouble Maker" as a joke. My younger cousin(she's 4) believed it and one day when younger cousin andi went for a walk, she pointed at the ATM machine (someone was standing there)... oops

haych sqyare

I used to believe that the guy across my old street was going to kidnap me.

Briana

I dont know why but I used to think The Salvation Army was a mint company.

Anon

Someone told me that those big cement trucks would drive around the neighborhoods looking for little kids, who would then be dropped down into the chute and ground up into little bits inside the big tumbler. I would run away everytime I saw one, scared to death.

kwyk

When garbage trucks would pass by my friends and i would run away. We believed that the big thing that comes down to pick up trash cans would pick up children too. We feared we'd be kidnapped by a trashman lol.Well,It could happen....

Catie C.

There was a road that ran off mine where my parents friends used to live, Reg and Maureen. I once asked my dad what the road was called and he insisted it was Reg And Maureen Road, and as I couldn't read those words I believed him. The next week I had to write a postcard with my address on it, and I wrote Mum And Dad Road as I thought everything worked like that... I was confused when I realised my next-door-neighbour would call our road something different.

Stupey Girl.

When I was little I thought everyone had to live on the street that started with the first letter of their last name. Since we lived on Avenue I and our name started with F I was convinced we were going to be arrested. Every time I heard sirens I just KNEW they were coming for us!

Bekka

Near my elementary school, there was a building that said, "F.L.T. ODD FELLOWS HALL I.O.O.F." I wondered what those acronyms stood for, and since I thought it said, "Old Fellows" it was an assisted living home. Then I realized it was a fraternal organization, and when I was down the Cape, I saw a building with the same sign and realized it was a chain club. Then I went online and found out about the Odd Fellows organization and realized that F.L.T. stood for Fraternity, Love, and Truth, and I.O.O.F. stood for Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Anon

I used to see " To Let" signs for houses/buildings etc. as we drove through my home city, and winge at my parents that I need to go to the toilet. I didn't understand that these were'nt really giant toilet signs until I was about 11.

Harri

My parents always told me at night the sticks we had played with throughout the day turned into snakes..

Sarahb

I used to believe (Thanks to my crazy uncle...) that the sidewalk dissapeared at night (the area near my home didn't have street lamps)

Anon

I was told by my gran that the lion statues outside Leeds town hall moved during the night. Every time I went past, I would try to memorise which position they were in. By the time I saw them again, I had forgotten their positions but was convinced they had moved.

Kirsty