When I was about 5 my grandmother told me that when night came it was time to sleep, because all the night owls were out looking for eyes to pick. Now at 51 I'm still afraid of owls!
animals
3,621 beliefs in this area
my older sister once told me that pandas created the universe, legend had it that they were bored of being alone so they drew us on paper and gave us life, angered by their mean ways, the humans revolted and took over, sending pandas to zoos as punishment.
I heard once that if you peed on a worm, the worm would exact his revenge by exuding a gas that would make your penis swell up. Fortunately for worms and my karma, I never experimented (probably I was just afraid it would turn out to be true).
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I used to believe,, when I saw the Deer Xing sign , that there was an animal called a Xing,, that nobody had ever told me about,, you know you have too,..
From the time I was a child, I believed penguins were man-sized. All the pictures I ever saw of them they were standing on ice, with nothing to reference their size. I am 57 and it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned differently.
when i was little, my mom took me to see the movie jaws . she says that after that, i was afraid to lay abck and wash my hair , scared a shark would get me.... i was also afraid of the moon, thinking it was gonna fall out of the sky..
I used to believe that if you encountered a skunk and it sprayed you, you would have to go home and get rid of all your clothes. I'd heard my folks talking about someone they knew who encountered one on a fishing trip "...and she had to burn all her clothes." I was terrified I'd run into a skunk because I had a dress at home I really liked and I wouldn't want to have to go home and burn it.
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when I was a little boy I used to think that dogs eat kets. that kets it is the only food that the dogs have...
I once saw a Twilight Zone where a bug was put in someone's ear and it crawled in and layed eggs that ate the guy's brains. I assumed that earwigs were those bugs, and I still can't stand the sight of them.
When I was about 10 years old, my grown-up cousin took a couple of us kids for a walk up a mountain in Scotland. I think we must've been dragging behind because my cousin suddenly shouted "come on you two, there two bl**dy great snails just gone racing past". If he thought this would speed us up he was totally wrong - we spent the next hour convinced that we could find these two big snails that had raced past us!
I used to believe that moths were sent by the devil to steal your innermost thoughts. Whilst you were asleep they'd fly into your ear and through to your brain. I still cannot go to sleep if there's a single moth in the house, and always pull the duvet up so that it covers my ears, just in case.
A friend of mine mistakenly believed that "a view" was an animal, rather than "a panorama". Thus on every family outing, some one remark "wow...look at the view", and the poor girl would look desperately out of the car window for the ever elusive glimpse of this rare species, to the evident mirth of her siblings. Despite it taking years for her to figure out the truth, there doesn't appear to be any lasting pyschological damage...
when i was little i asked my big sister why cows chew that way and she told me that everyone was supposed to chew that way and i would actually do it....i'm still made fun of for it
When I was five, I decided that cats needed haircuts just like people. I grabbed some scissors, crawled under the dining room table, and cut all of my cat's whiskers off. I wasn't allowed to used scissors for two months.
Whenever I see a helium balloon in the sky, I smile because I remember losing one when I was about three and crying and my mother calming me down by telling me that the birds would play with it until it popped. I'm 31 and still like to comfort kids with that idea when they lose a balloon.
I took 'Peter Cottontail' a bit seriously, and thought that all cotton came from rabbits' tails. The first time I saw a bag of 100 cotton balls, I was horrified. Then I figured they must shed them or have them shaved off like sheep's wool. Learning about the slaves and cotton in the South set me straight.
When I was about 7 or so, I can remember my older next door neighbor selling my best friend a water bug for $5, telling him it was actually a baby Turtle. I had a bit of a swamp in my backyard, so I was quite accustomed to seeing those giant waterbugs at the time, and I told my friend repeatedly that it wasn't a turtle, it was a frickin' waterbug! He didn't believe me, and I can remember going over to his house a few days later, and seeing the waterbug in a fish bowl on top of a shelf in their living room. Good times, man, good times!
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I used to think that all puppies were male and all kitties were female. When my cat had kittens I was disappointed that she didn't have any boys. :-)
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Remember 'Birdie' from McDonalds? We had a yellow budgie called Birdie, and I thiught it was the same one!
my family used to ask "what makes a spiderweb?" "a spider", I'd reply. "and what makes a cobweb?" "a cob". I never understood why this was so funny, and it hurt my feelings