people

When I was 6 or 7 I had been to several funerals for very old people. I wasn't afraid of death because I believed you just crossed your arms and went to sleep. Everyone in the coffins had their arms crossed, so I figured that is how they died. Seemed very nice.

Sherry from NC

my parents told my brother and i that my grandpa died because he didn't eat peas, so we were told to eat our peas or else!!!

Amanda

When I was little, my granny told me that if I left my drink sitting for awhile that a little worm would crawl into the drink and if I drank the drink I would die. She said she knew a man that it had happened to. She only did this so I would finish my drink and not leave it sitting around, and I think it was pretty ridiculous, but to this day I still don't like to leave a glass or a can with any drink in it and I refuse to drink anything that's been sitting out of my sight for any amount of time.

Brittany

every one lived until they were 100 and then they died no questions asked

sext4eva

When I was little I overheard my older brother talking to my mom about dying and something that I didn't understand about a "coffin". For some reason I thought that this "coffin" was in fact a large, terrible bird. I became terrified that a large bird would come and get me. Made sense, as a stork brought me...

Sal

i believed that my parents were imposters...i believed you never knew when you died, life just kept going on without so much as a ripple and if you had been good bad things would just stop happening...but for kids like me...the bad things would just get worse and it would never end and you would never know

reMARKable

I said to my mum when I was about 6 "Mum - you know when you die, and they put you in the box, how do you breath?"

Lesley

when i was about 7 I thought that the only way you could die was if somebody killed you or you had an accident or something. I thought that you would grow old and stay like that forever. When my mom actually told me how it was, I started screaming and throwing stuff. (i also couldn't sleep for days)

JSRG

i used to believe that caskets look like ordinary wodden boxes, rather small and they would have inscriptions like "handle with care" and "this side up". of course you would have to fold the dead people to get them inside....
i have never been to a funeral in my childhood.

lili

When I was 6, I believed that the Grim Ripper killed little girls.For Halloween my older sister dressed up as the Grim Ripper. At 2 o'clock in the morning she came in with her costume on and started shaking me and whispering in creepy voice "Tonight you will die." After that I jumped off my bed and ran into my parents room. That was were I fell and got a scar on my face I still have today. I still didnt believe my parents when they told me it was my sister. I still believe that the Grim Ripper only killed little girls until I was 8 and watched the movie and realized there were no little girls in it.

Scared Crazy

I used to believe that when i died it was like a super mario game... I had a certain number of lives.

David...waffles

I used to believe that dead people were conscious and able to talk once they had been buried, and that the corpses used to yell to the people buried near them and have conversations and stuff, but that only other dead people could hear them because they were underground. I used to think they must get really bored just lying in their coffins forever.

Anon

i used to believe people were put in coffins because they were special cars that could drive you to heaven!

jym

I believed that when my parents told me they had to go to a funeral and they were going to "calling hours", that they were in fact going to go and sit at a large conference table and answer the phone when people called. I was 22 when I realized the truth at the first funeral I attended.

Laura, New Bern, NC

when i was younger, i had these weird pains on my body a couple times a day that felt like pinching. it was right after my great grandpa died, and i was certain his ghost was following me around and pinching me to let me know he was still there.

crazy kid

Me and my brother used to believe that when a person died, their spirit would become a seagull, and they would fly up and down the coast until everyone in their family was all right and ten they would fly away over the sea. We passed this belief onto my cousins as well.

Sammy

I used to think that when you died. You used to float up into the clouds. So whenever I saw a break in the clouds with the sun shining through in the distance, I thought somebody was floating up to heaven!

Gemma Wyatt

All throughout my childhood, I believed that if I didn't hold my breath and put my feet up on the seat in front of me while going by a cemetery (in a car or bus, of course) and then count five red cars afterwards, in which only then I could breathe again, I'd have nightmares. And since I was a little kid, nightmares were a pretty scary thing.

Sometimes I still hold my breath while going by a cemetery. I haven't had a nightmare in quite a few years. :-)

Kagome

When I was a child I used to be scared to say the part of the night time prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep", that went "If I should die before I awake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." I used to believe that was sort of telling God I didnt mind dying in my sleep. So I would never, ever say it.

Anon

I used to think that when you go to Heaven, you could keep anything you want if you stuff your pockets with what you wanted to bring.

Matthew