I used to believe that if you went swimming in the pool of a cruise ship, you'd come back to the surface and end up in the middle of the ocean.

Nadia

I thought that the local bars advertising "pool" had swimming pools in them. I swore to myself that when I grew up I would frequent these bars and do nothing but swim all day.

amanda

I used to believe that in the deep end of one of our town's pools, there was a huge sea serpent that would kill you if you touched it. I never knew for sure, because it was the kind of pool that is designed to look like a lake, you know, with murky water and sand on the bottom. So one day, I decided to see if I could find it. I jumped off the dock in the middle of the deep end and swam straight down. Now, I was about 7 years old, and the pool was 18 feet deep, so once I got pretty far down, I was not thinking clearly. I had my hands stretched out, and my hand brushed something. I screamed while I was under the water, and swam as fast as I could (not very fast) to the surface. I was convinced that the monster was chasing me. So I burst to the surface and got on the dock, breathing heavily, as I'd almost lost conciousness by that point. I now know that I'd touched the bottom, but I was too scared to ever go in that pool again.

Anonymous

I used to believe that in swimming pools with the thick black lines seperating the lanes, that if i stepped or touched one of the black lines sharks would come out and get me. Thank you brother.

Megan Brown

When I was little, my older brother told me the water that comes out of your goggles when you take them off after swimming was eyeball juice that the goggles sucked out of your eyes. I was scared to put on goggles for weeks.

Anon

When I was younger, and when I went to a swimming pool, I noticed how one side of the pool was 3 feet and the other end was 6 feet. I always thought the people who worked at the pool put something special in the water so some of the water would go to one side and a lot of water would go to the other side. Later in life I realized that the person to installed the pool dug one side of the pool deeper then the other!

specialpoolchemical

Up until I was around 12 I was scared to swim in public pools, because they had designs on the bottom, which I always thought to myself was either a giant squid or a human eating vacuum.

Bryce

When I was little, I used to believe that if you got closer to a pool duct, it will suck you by the hair and you'll drown in the bottom of the swimming pool.

They told that one little girl died this way, so I was terrified of going to the bottom and find the dead girl without a bunch of it's hair... Brrrrrr!!!!

Mônica

I once believd that whilst swimming, you could regenerate the air in your own mouth, i.e whilst breathing out (head underwater), if I opened my mouth, I could catch my own air bubble and continue without havng to resurface. What added credibility to this was watching Tarzan (Johnny Weissmeller) doing etended underwater scenes. What took away this credibility was that I tried it and nearly drowned

Bini

When I was very young, maybe 4, my parents were discussing sending my sister and me to swimming lessons while we were driving home from Grandma's house one day. At that moment, I looked out the window and saw the tennis court at a local park. I immediately assumed the tennis court was a swimming pool. For years I wondered how they kept the water in, with only chain link fencing.

Still a poor swimmer

I used to believe that if you touched the drain in a swimming pool it would suck you in and you would die. That is what I thought drowning meant.

B. Gokce

I used to think that a carpool was one of those bug, long limosine's with a pool all the way in the back.

Annie

When I was little my uncle told me all about the glass shark that lives in swimming pool drains. He said because it was made of glass, you couldn't see it except as shifts in the current/pool lights. Of course, wind on the water causes these shifts as well. Thanks, Unc.

Sappho413

One summer afternoon when I was around six years old, the family was at my aunt and uncle's house for some sort of party. I was in the pool, and my dad and his cousins were watching me, making sure I didn't drown. As I was swimming, I wondered out loud if my uncle could buy a slide for his pool. My father, who I suppose was bored and possibly a little drunk, decided it would be fun to tell me there was a slide.

I swear, I looked for that slide for thirty minutes straight. And every time I asked where it was, someone would point to the opposite side of the pool and say, "It's right there!" until my dad decided to stop torturing me and told me there wasn't a slide.

For years, I thought that slide had disappeared off the face of the earth, and I was the only person who didn't get to see it before it "left"

Captain Gullible

in the summer, i used to get scared at night when i was going to sleep, because i was scared that Albinos would come and swim in my pool at night...i used to lock the gate at night when i was the last one in...hmmm...

the man who sat on the man who is Elvis

My sister used to tell me that after swimming in the pool if I didn't wash my hair right afterwards then my hair would turn blue.

Anon

When I was around five or six years old I discovered that putting my private parts near the place in the pool where water came out felt really good. I didn't understand it. I somehow thought that I was refilling my bladder. One day, I had been doing that for a while when my Mom asked what I was doing. I said "nothing." My mom then whispered something to her friend. It was not until about 6 years later that I discovered that what I had been doing was called "masturbation." I then remembered that incident and was horrified to know that I had been masturbating in public and that my mother and her friend knew about it.

Nadhezda

Right before I started Kindergarten, my mom told me that we would be going in a carpool. I was extreamly excited, envisioning the swim party that would be going on with my friends in this vehicle with a pool in the back!

Anon

My brother told me when I was seven that at the bottom of our swimming pool, where the filter cap was, that an invisible laser beam came out of it, aiming straight up. If you broke the beam, the bottom of the pool would open up and a shark would swim out. Whenever I went off the diving board I always jumped to the side to avoid the beam. I still do it to this day, without thinking about it.

Jill

I was swimming in my pool when I accidentally touched the floating chlorine buoy. I was so terrified that I was going to die of chlorine overexposure that my parents had told me about and that if I died in my sleep, vultures would come eat me up.

I can understand that chlorine part, but I still don't know where the vultures part came from.

Anon