I used to believe when I was little that when those gas stations had the signs outside that said "Clean Restrooms", that it meant that you had to clean the restroom! LOL

Charlotte

i used to beleive that there was a man in the traffic lights that changed the colours.until one day i saw a crash where a car knocked over the traffic lights i ran over to see if the man was okay but instead i found metel and wires

lois rules earth (its true)

At night, while walking along the sidewalk, I would see the reflection of car headlights on the power wires up above. Since they moved quickly and disappeared after a while, I thought I was seeing electricity moving through them.

PK

As a kid, my brother, sisters and I were told that for a letter to arrive at its destination, we had to say the name of the city and state aloud into the mailbox. Why? Because a very small man waited inside the mailbox to collect and sort the mail, and he needed to know which pile to put it on.

Although I never believed this story, my younger sister did until she was almost 10. My brother and I caught her in the act one afternoon--but she realized she'd been duped when she heard us laughing hyterically. The truth can be cruel.

Shylda Odell

When someone was awarded the "key to the city" I thought it was a real key which operated all the city's locks. Then I was worried that the recipients could gain access to my house!!!

Nathaniel Tiffany

The Salvation Army building in Crewe when i was growing up had the letters S and V missing from their name on the outside of their building. I thought they were called the Alsation army until I was 14 when they added the letters that were missing. I never could undertsand why everyone else called them the Salvation Army.

KevG

When I was little I believed that the steaming man holes we see in the city, was a direct access to hell. I wanted to go down and visit. #:D

Barbara

I thought that when a club had sign out front saying, "no cover." that meant women didn't cover their chests. I was horrifed that one day I would have to go in a club and they would make me take my shirt off.

Melani

Just after preschool we decided to move, and i just couldnt grasp it. I thought that when we moved we would take all our stuff AND take apart our house piece by piece and put it back together at the new location. I didnt understand how we could do it over the weekend. Man am i glad it wasnt like that.

Derek

When I was young, my mother and I lived in a town home. My mother had the bedroom downstairs, and I had the upstairs room that was more like a loft. It only had a half-wall and I could look down and see the rest of the house. Well, across the way was a long, narrow window that stretched across the opposite wall with a view of a fairly busy street (I don't remember if it was a highway of some sort or not). But when I was little I always thought that the world stopped at a certain time. And by that I mean, I thought everyone went to bed at a certain time. I thought that if I stayed up long enough, the cars would stop driving by because everyone would be at home and in bed. I would climb on my bed and rest my head on the half-wall behind it and watch the cars waiting for them to stop. Needless to say, that never happened, and I always fell asleep waiting for it to. My young mind just couldn't conceive the idea that people were up at all hours of the night and morning.

Anon

I used to believe the balls on the wires (for planes to see) were from the circus and that they had accidently left them(sorta like a tightrope)

Leigh

We lived on a dead-end street. At the end of the block, there was a sewer drain that ran the entire width of the street. I thought that underneath that part of our street was the actual location of Hell.

Kathi

I was just browsing the site, and came upon an interesting discovery. I just found out about two minutes ago, from a belief posted here, that fire trucks actually don't carry the water inside of them. And I'm 19.
Now that is seriously sad!

Anon

When I was around six my cousin told me that the orange balls they put on the telephone wires were there to twist the wires so the squirrels couldn't walk on them. It used to confuse me so much to see the birds land on the wires that the squirrels couldn't touch.

Needless to say I later found out that they're there so the airplanes don't hit them, but still every time I see them the first thought in my head is to look to see if any squirrels are on them.

Gortday

In the city we grew up in, there is a door the seemingly leads nowhere. It is on a hill, going up a street. Above it is just a parking lot, or it was when we were kids. The door was just there with concrete leading to the side of the hill. We always believed the door was the entryway to Hell, and no adult ever would tell us it's real purpose. Still is spooky to see it there, in 2005, leading "nowhere".

Wings

When I was little, my grandfather told me that all the left shoes travelled in a different lorry to the right shoes, so that if there was an accident people couldn't steal pairs of shoes. This was enforced by the fact that we always seemed to see Hush Puppy lorries travelling in twos.

Janey

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.

My mother was a little girl in Brazil in the early 1960's. Whenever my mother would see a homeless person carrying a bag, her mother would tell her that those people kidnapped children and they would carry the children in the bags.
As a result, my mother was horrified and never got near homeless people with bags. Now she feels terrible and knows they were just carrying around their belongings.

Claudia

i thought lease was some rich famous lady that everyone loved since i saw all these signs on buildings that said *for lease*
i thought she was taking over the world or something, buying all those stores and stuff

reh

When I was about 7, I thought the red front doors of my sister's high school meant that firetrucks were stored inside, and the firetrucks would come down the 20 or so steps of the building anytime there was a fire. I proudly told this to a visitor we were showing around town and my entire family stared at me like I was a total loon.

Still confused by buildings