We lived near a lake when I was a boy. My older brothers, who all swam well, told my younger brother and me that there was a sandbar in the middle of the lake, and that it was where all the snapping turtles lived. They said if I ever tried to swim across the lake and tried to stand up on the sandbar, or even let my kicking feet get near the bottom, the snapping turtles would bite onto me, would never let go, and I would drown.
A few years later, when I finally figured I was strong enough to swim across the lake, I nearly panicked when I got tired near the middle. I'm so glad I learned the elementary backstroke in the Scouts! I wouldn't let myself stop, made it all the way across, and all the way back.
To this day, I still have a irrational fear (though one I can get past) of being bitten by a snapping turtle when I'm wading or swimming in lakes and rivers (and I'm 39)!
A childhood belief about water
others believed things like this
- when i was a kid i believed i could make things happen just by snapping my fingers like in mary poppins!!Anon
- Turtles can fly. I believed it for ages.
My turtle got lost or probably died and I was told it flew away.Anon - When I was a child i thought turtle wax, was to wax turtles.— J.P.
- I believed they put heated coils in lakes for the ducks to swim in the wintertime.Anon
- When my dad was little his older siblings convinced him that there were flocks of flying turtles.— Anonymous
- I always thought the connectors on the telephone lines were flying turtles.— Angie B