I realized that there were tons of cracks in the cement and asphault right about the same time that the space ship Challenger blew up. For many years I was convinced that the explosion caused the cracks.

Dave Hare

I used to believe that the pictures of the people on a semi-circle in the parking lot of places (aka, the handicapped sign) meant that the place had restrooms.

Anon

More years ago than I care to mention, I lived across the road from from the first tee of a beautiful, well established golf course. Beyond the tee was a Greek temple from which I believed the sun rose every morning - glorious and magical! During a visit as an adult 20 years later, I realized that the Greek temple was an elaborately disguised tractor shed that happened to be due east from my livingroom window!

Alice

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

When I was young there were a few pedal cycles in our village. We all knew that the rider had to pedal, with the legs going up and down in turn, to get the bicycle to move. On a rare occasion, the sanitary inspector came on his motorcycle. I was convinced, though, that the wheels of the motorcycle did not turn: they just glided on the road. Did anybody see the rider pedaling? No, all that the man did was to sit comfortably with bent knees without moving his legs at all.

Gamini Premadasa

When I was little and visited the Greek isles with my parents, I always saw "Rooms to let" signs and wondered how is it possible that 'toilet' is mispelled EVERYTIME? I also couldn't understand why the signs mentioned toilets-didn't all rooms have them as standard? And signs that just said 'Rooms'-did they not have a toilet?

Vicky

When I was around 3 I remember watching the garbage men come down the street and seeing them throw everything in the back of their truck. I beleived if my Brother and I stood near the front yard they would throw us in there as well. I remember hiding under the front porch every time they came and refusing to come out until they were long gone.

Mike

When I was younger, I always thought (for some reason) that when the sign for a service station said 'Not 24 hours', it meant that it didn't take 24 hours to get there (and the ones that didn't say that did take 24 hours to get there, I suppose).

One day while I was in the car with my Dad, I pointed it out to him, and he asked me if I knew what it meant. I said yes, so he asked me what, and I was about to say what I thought, when I suddenly realised it meant that the service stations weren't open 24 hours.

So I quickly said that, and never told him what I really believed.

Sarah

As a kid I once asked an adult how all the streetlights knew when to turn on and off. I was told that they were all linked to a clock.

I immediateley imagined each streetlight as having an alarm clock inside it (like the old style bell & hammer ticking ones). But I was told they were all linked to the same clock.

I therefore thought that every streetlight was physically coming out of a MASSIVE alarm clock underground inside the earth, big enough for every streetlight in the world to come out of.

Fledge

I used to think that all the street lamps were controlled by one giant light switch, hidden behind some bushes somewhere in the town. I used to imagine it was switched every night and every morning, by a surly caretaker.

Tufty the Squirrel

that DOT was a particularly popular brand of motor cycle helmet.

Gary Watrous

when i was younger my mum used to tell me and my brothers and sisters about a man who lived over the road from us called the sock-sniffer and she used to say when you walked past him he would steal your socks and sew them onto his jacket.......and i believed her.........o-m-g!!

lucy

I used to believe that there was a mansion in my neighbor's backyard. They had about an acre of woods, and the noises I thought were coming from 'the mansion' were really coming from some apartments behind their land. I don't even know where that idea came from! :-p

Savannah

I was told that petrol stations drew fuel from directly out of the ground. When the fuel ran out they had to close down.

JB

I had a dream that I confused with real life that an umbrella could keep me aloft for a very long time while walking down the street (we're talking like twenty feet.) I'm pretty sure I tried while awake and just thought there wasn't enough wind.

Ryan

I used to believe our neighbors were royalty! They were very poor by todays standards but they had running water in their house, an indoor toilet, a tub, telephone and a furnace! We had to get water from a well, heat from a wood burner in the center of the home, we had an outhouse and I took a bath in a big washtub! I'm only 45 so it wasn't that long ago! :)

Linda Harms

When I was a child in the car with my folks and we would pass by a building that said "body shop" I did not realize it was for car body repair and thought it was for people.

Rhonda

I used to believe that the gas station was the bank, because when my mom pulled up to the tank, she'd say, "Give me 20."

Jen O.

Our church had a charity drive to collect clothing for the poor. My mother bought a pair of mittens to donate. I asked her, "But what if the person who gets them lives somewhere where it's not cold enough to need mittens?" She explained that these clothes were all for people right there in our town! I had no idea that there were poor people so close to us - I thought they all lived in faraway countries, like on the "Save the Children" commercials.

Katrin