My Mom convinced me that those black things that stretch across a road to monitor how many ppl drive on the road...where actually people's garden hoses that they stretched across the road to flatten them out cuz they didn't want to wrap their garden hoses up in circles anymore. And the reason they were black (instead of green) was because the tires and road were so dirty.

Crystal

When my mom would take me with her to run errands we'd always pass this house that had stuffed animals set up for sale on the lawn, and to keep me from begging she told me they were all just outside to dry. It seemed perfectly logical to me, although I always wondered why she couldn't just be more careful trying to keep them clean.

Amanda

when I was a kid and saw a van drive past that were a firm of shop fitters - I always read it as shop lifters & wondered why the Police didn't go after them

(It still catches me out sometimes)

kb

I used to think that the eye symbol on the Neighborhood Crime Watch signs was a toilet lever, and that it meant some kind of motto like 'Help Flush Out Crime'

Scatman

In one of the neighborhoods that I lived in growing up there was this old house that had its windows boarded up and the grass outside was like three feet high and all the kids were positive that a mean old lady lived in there. We called her the cat lady because whenever a kitten went missing it was said that she lured them to her house and fed them poison... forget the fact that we all bought those kittens at the town fireworks for a-penny-a-paw and thought they were old enough to run around the neighborhood by themselves. And it meant nothing that the house was condemned by the town. There was an old lady cat-napping our kitten!!

Sam

In singapore we have these drain gratings on the pathways next to roads. On rainy days, my mom used to tell me "Watch out for the gratings, they're slippery". Only i thought that she was calling them "Grey Things" because well, they were grey and i thought she didn't know wat they were actually called..

Mike

I used to think that the UPS truck was the thing that they haul people to the lunatic asylum in, with white jackets on.

anon.

When I was around 5 or 6, i thought UPS trucks were driven by Oompa-Loompas that tried to kidnap children to make them test candy at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Scatman

My sister thought there was a little man inside traffic lights who would run up and down all day making them go red, orange and green!

yellownessy

I used to belive a man went round all the street lights to turn them on at night and that he would go and turn them all off in the morning!

yellownessy

When I was little, my cousins used to live at the end of a court. Because the road didn't continue but just ended at their house, I believed that after their backyard would be only sea, because it was the edge of Australia. It never occured to me to wonder why there were more houses behind my cousins house, though.

Jem

I've always had a very bad sense of direction, especially in the dark. This obviously led me to believe that buildings and streets moved around at night just to confuse me.

Marie

I used to believe that the orange balls I saw on the telephone wires were "radar balls"... that is what my dad told me they were. That way the police would always know who was speeding down the road!

Tami

I used to think that I nursing home was a place were mothers would take their new born babies to feed them

Katie

I used to seriously believe that if you stepped on a crack, while walking on the sidewalk, you would brake your mothers back.

Kristen

I used to believe there really were "Goonies" living under ground catching change as it fell when people put it into parking meters.

kja

When i was really little about 2 or three years old i used to think if i didnt jumponto the white lines of the zebra crossing i would fall into a world of nothingness and die.

Yasmin

I used to believe something terrible must have happened inside of a small house that was across the street from my elementary school. In the front window a table could be seen and on this table were three, playground sized balls. One beach ball and two plastic marbled looking ones. They sat in the same spot day after day. I concluded that the children were murdered and the grief-stricken parents could not bear to put the children's play things away. The incredible thing about this is those three balls stayed on that table for over twenty years! My friends and I were not brave enough to knock on the door and ask about the "mystery." The house was eventually torn down.

beach ball babe

When I was four, I used to think that the drive through sign at Burger King was alive, and knew how to take orders. Then I became six, and developed a much more rational idea. The sign wasn't alive. Instead, there was a little man inside of it, who was talking to us. I still haven't figured this one out...

Kiki