A childhood belief about gherkins

Once, when I was like, 4, I asked my mom why there were "tails" on pickles. (By "tails" I meant the piece of the vine you get sometimes on the end of pickles.) She told me that pickles were little animals that run around and when people catch them, they pull off their arms and legs and put them in jars. Then she said that if you listened closely, you could hear the scream for help. So, at the age of 4, I could often be seen holding pickles against my ears.