I suppose hearing 'where there's smoke there's fire' led me to believe that there were fires under the street-- why else would there be smoke billowing out of the subway grates? What disturbed me even more was the fact that none of the pedestrians walking right through this smoke seemed to care and just went about their business!

Anon

My brother used to think that the brushes at automatic car washes were Sulley from Monsters Inc.

RJ

I used to think that ambulances constantly cruised around neighborhoods and when you needed one, you just ran outside and flagged one down.

pms

My neighbors across the street own horses, and when I was small I thought the horses were the people who lived in the house, since I never saw the human owners. And I thought that the horses would learn to talk every new years' eve, because then they would throw loud parties where everyone yelled.

Emily S.

My partner used to believe that cul de sacs were full of dead hens. This was because her mother who had a strong Yorkshire accents and had told her they were dead 'ens!

Anon

You know how on old buildings, down in the corner there is the "EST." followed by a date, like 1910 or something. For years I thought the "EST." stood for estimated, like they weren't sure, but they think the building was built around that date...

Anon

I used to think that robbers had keys to every house and that's how they got in to take your stuff

Emma

I used to think there was a big piece of elastic, with one end attached to my back and the other attached to the letterbox on our front door. This meant that if I walked round a lamppost I would get stretched and then have to quickly walk backwards around it again so that I didn't get tangled up.

Dan Littler

We lived in Fort Davis, Panama, when I was 4 yrs old. Mom commented, probably to a visiting neighbour, that "it's so hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk!"

... It didn't work.

Enid

When I was four, my dad told me the volleyball poles stuck in the beach were put there by walruses as part of a migratory ritual every August. I totally believed him. Jerk.

erin

I used to believe there was a tribe of indians living behind a long wooden fence alongside the path I used to take to school. I had to hold my breath as I went past this fence or they would kill me. What a tribe of indians was doing in the middle of Cambridgeshire I really don't know.

Claire

When I was young I used to believe that speed bumps were actually where they buried dead policemen. I guess I thought they wanted to continue serving their community post-mortem!

Tristan

I usd to believe that at restaurants that had a BYO sign out the front, you had to "bring your own" meal.

Fiona

In Canada we have signs that read:
Max Clearance - 6'10" (or with other various measurements for truck heights on them) and I used to believe that we had a really tall guy, named Max Clearance in our fair city of Halifax!!!

Jude Horrocks

When I saw signs stating "Lots for sale" I thought it meant that there was a lot for sale.

Robin

There was construction going on outside of our house one day when I was five or six, and I was curiously watching. There was a cement truck and I remember being very intruiged by it, until it started to move. The shoot (the long thing in which the cement flows out of the mixer) faced toward me and suddenly I went crying and screaming bloody murder out of the room. Horrified, my dad asked what was the matter and I dramatically replied "That truck stuck its tongue out at me!"

Apparently I use to believe that construction machinery had tongues.

Kindsey

Downtown, the crosswalks have regular lights to tell you when to walk, but they also have highpitched beeps to alert blind people of when to cross. I never put it together... I always looked up on the stoplights for birds that were making the sound. Eventually I concluded that they were trained birds that lived inside the streetlight poles.

Ellyy

I used to believe that the large telephone pole outside my bathroom window was where Jesus lived. The Cross at the top I think is what led me to think this. I would pray to that pole everyday..does that count as a false Idol?

MissAnthropy

As a child I believed that when you put letters in a mailbox, they would magically find their way to the recipient by way of underground tunnels and chutes--operated by gnomes living deep underground. I thought that the earth's core was a series of tubes that connected mailboxes!

unpezzogrosso

i believed for the longest time that after about 8 pm all the roads were closed (just like stores) and everyone had to be at home with their families and going to bed...

darcy