When I was about 5, my father was on the phone with someone and laughing quite a bit. Although I could only hear one side of the conversation, I had recently learned the secret to hearing both sides of it. So I climbed up onto his lap and put my ear firmly against his ear (the one opposite from his phone ear) and listened closely until he asked what I was doing. I explained that I was hoping the other person's words would go in out ear and out the other.

Anon

I used to believe that you could pass things down the telephone.

Anon

i used to think that when commercials told u to call 1-800-(name of the company), that the letters on the buttons on the phone dialed a different thing, like each number dials a different thing...anyway, i always wondered how the phone knew which letter people wanted to dial, afterall, there is more than one letter on each button...

jackie!

I used to think that when you dialed a telephone number with letters in it, that the phone actually KNEW which letters you were dialing. I would always ask my dad "How does the phone know which letter you want to dial when there are three letters on each number?"

Mia

When I was young and called a friend on the phone, I thought the busy signal would eventually turn into ringing. I waited and waited but always lost my patience before the busy signal turned to ringing.

Patty

I guess this would fit into this topic:
When I was a kid, I thought that the voice on the phone when you called the time was just one women who had to sit in a little room and answer that phone all day and night.

sweetmel

i used to think that any time i pressed the 0 on the phone it would dial the operator. so even in the middle of the phone number i would press the 0 as fast as i could so that it wouldnt dial the operator instead.

becca

When I was a kid, I thought my mother and a neighbor frequently gave each other rings (rings like one wears on one's finger). I watched to see them wearing all those new rings, but I never did. I didn't realize yet that when they said, "I'll give you a ring", they were talking about making phone calls to each other.

Greg

I used to believe that "caller i.d." was actually "caller idea" becuase you would have an IDEA about who was calling you.

Lauryn

The very first time I had to do a report for school...I thought I could just dial "information" on the phone and someone would look things up for me.

Anon

I used to believe that when you moveed you had to dig up your telephone pole and take it to your new house if you wanted to keep your same number.

Anon

When i was young, i moved from New york back to brisbane, and i gave a new friend my fone number. Little did i know that your number changed when you move, and i gave him our number from America.

Scott

When I watched my parents using the telephone, I thought they had to wait for it to ring, then pick it up and dial a number. It took me some time to realise that you did one or the other, but not both.

Alan

I always thought that my relatives were really tiny, and inside my phone when I talked to them on the phone.

Anon

I used to believe that each U.S. state's local phone company was named after the state the company was located. (This was in the late 1980s, after AT&T was split up.) I believed this because I knew that Indiana's phone company was "Indiana Bell" and Illinois had "Illinois Bell," so naturally I thought there was a "Florida Bell," a "New York Bell," and a "California Bell."

Matt Thiel

When my mother used to try to make phone calls and 'it was busy.' I always wondered how the phone knew the people were busy.

Heather C.

when i was little my mum told me that our neighbours had an answering machine, and I thought this was a human like robot that came out of the closet next to the phone and tell the people who called that there was no one homo

Anon

Ever since I was little I've been afraid to talk on the phone because I thought that there are little ghosts in your phone that pretend to be your friend and then jump out of the phone and eat you. Sometimes I still think that.

Hope

When I was little, before call waiting, I didn't understand how the busy signal on the phone worked. When I heard the busy signal, instead of hanging up, I would wait for several minutes, thinking that when the line was free again, my call would go through. This went on for a long time until my mom noticed and explained it to me.

me again

I used to think you could dial your own telephone and speak to yourself - I could never work out why it was always engaged!

Cold Caller