people

My grandma died when I was very young and my Aunt was upset because I was having a good time playing with my cousin. She thought we should be sad too but I thought someone had to die in order for there to be enough room on the planet for a baby to be born. I thought it was really nice that my grandma had given her spot on earth to someone else. Besides, I thought she was soooo old.

sadly mistaken

I used to think that when a person said that ghosts were in limbo, it meant that they were doing the limbo. I thought maybe instead of going towards the light they stayed playing the limbo, and if they touched the stick that meant they had no choice but to go towards the light. Lucky, I didnt believe it for too long. My friend told me what it really was.

Lauren

At the age of five I overheard my fifteen year old brother say "We have to go plant Uncle Dick today", in regards to the cremated remains of my Uncle, whose funeral was that day.

I surmised, and believed for several years, that trees grew from people. People died and were "planted", at which time they grew in to trees...

Anon

I used to believe that if you died, and you were buried, there was no casket...and the bugs would eat your body. I went around afraid of dieing, worried that my body was going to be dinner for the bugs.

Lauren

When my Nanny used to point out an obituary of someone she knew in the paper, I used to believe that the undertaker at the funeral home somehow propped open the dead guys eyes for his picture!

Terri

When I was about nine or ten, I heard for the first time people talking about someone "putting her head in the oven" to kill herself. Of course it's something to do with breathing in the oven fumes, but I didn't know that. I thought if you wanted to kill yourself you had to cook your head, and when it got cooked through completely, you would die.

Anon

When I was about 7 or so, my aunt had passed away. So for about the next 2 years, on her birthday I'd have my mom buy a balloon filled with helium, I'd write Happy Birthday on it, and let it go, thinking she'd eventually get it.

Genny

I used to believe that each star was like a cafe or small space where everyone who had died could get together and catch up. People would go off on adventures during the day and then meet up with friends in the stars and talk about them. I used to have images of my grandma and grandpa sitting up there drinking coffee, chatting and talking about their latest adventures.

Anon

When I was younger, I truly believed that if someone ever tried to drown me it wouldn't work because I could just keep drinking all the water until it disappeared. I was confused when people did drown and thought "why didn't they just keep drinking?"

Stewart

I used to believe that in order to get to heaven after you died, some one had to take your body up in a plane and drop you off.

Anon

When I was little I thought that the stones in cemeteries were put there to keep the dead people from getting out of the ground. I eventually mentioned to my mother how relieved I was that the dead people couldn't get out, i had nightmares for years after she told me that wasnt their purpose.

Lexi

I used to believe that Wendy's was named after the first little girl the old man cut up in his kitchen and cooked into hamburgers. this may have had a lot to do with my brothers telling me if i went into Wendy's the old man would cut me up and eat me too! brothers are horrible.

Niki

When he was little, my brother believed that cemeterys were where people went when they wanted to die, and that going into a cemetery automatically killed you. One day we were going for a walk that lead through a little cemetery. He started crying and said he wasn't ready to die yet.

Anon

My brother and I thought that you burped before you died, so whenever we played dead we'd let out a huge belch and drop to the ground.

Anon

I used to believe, until I was probably twelve or so, that a "deathbed" was an actual piece of furniture. When I was really young, I thought it was a bed that could kill you (like the myth of Procrustes), and when I was preteen-aged, I thought it was a bed that people bought specifically to die on, when they knew their time was running out. Either way, I thought it was an incredibly morbid concept.

Emily

I was five when my grandmother died. My mom told me she would be cremated. I asked what that meant. She told me they would put her in an oven until she was burned to dust. I was horrified by the image of how they would have to chop her up in order to fit her body into a kitchen oven.

Ed

When my daughter was five years old we lived in Los Angeles. She and her father had been shot at on the freeway, he had been mugged outside the neighborhood bank, and we frequently heard gunfire at night. When I gently informed her that her great-uncle had passed away, she thought for a moment then asked "Who shot him?"

Anon

When I was 5 and my brother was 4, a close family friend died. My brother thought that she would come back to life in 3 days. We were raised Catholic and he thought that the Jesus story applied to everyone who died.

Heather

I was a shy kid. My father and I were waiting to pick up food from a resturant and the man in front of us looked at me and said, "Hey there partner." He gestured his index finger and thumb like a gun as to pretend he was a cowboy. I thought I had just been shot by a "hand gun" and I would soon die. I was terrified and my father was embarassed to have raised such a wuss.

Ritz

My dad died when I was 7 and was cremated. I didnt go to the funeral, but found out that cremated meant burnt, I thought they built a big bonfire and flung the body on. The worse thing, it wasnt until I was about 18 that I found out that it didnt happen like that !!

Anon