neighbourhood

I used to believe something terrible must have happened inside of a small house that was across the street from my elementary school. In the front window a table could be seen and on this table were three, playground sized balls. One beach ball and two plastic marbled looking ones. They sat in the same spot day after day. I concluded that the children were murdered and the grief-stricken parents could not bear to put the children's play things away. The incredible thing about this is those three balls stayed on that table for over twenty years! My friends and I were not brave enough to knock on the door and ask about the "mystery." The house was eventually torn down.

Whenever I'd ask for something when my mom and I were shopping, she'd tell me we couldn't buy it because she didn't have a coupon or it wasn't on sale. I used to think that you LITERALLY weren't allowed to buy it without a coupon/sale, and it was only for display until it actually went on sale. I never threw a tantrum about not getting what I wanted because I thought the store wouldn't let us buy it.

When I was four, I used to think that the drive through sign at Burger King was alive, and knew how to take orders. Then I became six, and developed a much more rational idea. The sign wasn't alive. Instead, there was a little man inside of it, who was talking to us. I still haven't figured this one out...

I have always been afraid to swim in a dark pool. I have always believed that they keep sharks in the cage (drain) that they let out at night to protect the pool. I am 30 years old now, and I still won't swim in dark water!! lol!

Every saturday I would go to the post office with my dad and maybe a sister or two to check his box. It was the kind where the back of the mailboxes were all open so the postmen could put the mail in. I was told that little people crawled into the boxes to bring my dad his mail, and he would always say "Thanks." or "How did you like that barbie jacket I brought you last week?" I was so curious that I kept trying to shove my dad's arm away to see the little people, but never got a glimpse before he would shut the door. My older sisters would always giggle, and I would be like "what...what is so funny?".

On my 23rd birthday they decided it was time to tell me to stop looking for Itsy Bitsy Betty and Tiny Tommy.

I used to believe that there were elfs in the sewer that picked out all the trash and dirt out of the water to make it clean again.

As a child I once got considerable ridicule from my father, and from the rest of the family to a lesser extent because, everytime we went riding I was convinced that I was seeing a significant number of flashlights that somebody had dropped into gutters alongside the roads. My father soon began to insist that what I was seeing in the gutters were beer cans and not flashlights. After I persisted in "seeing" flashlights for a while, my father would derisively say, "Oh yes, Schlitz flashlights and Budweiser flashlights!" I finally became convinced that I was indeed MOSTLY seeing beer cans. But I'm STILL not sure that I didn't see at least one actual flashlight in a gutter as the thing that got the whole affair started in the first place.

When I was a kid riding in the car, I'd notice that a lot of people had mailboxes with the word "Post". I though that was the last name of the family that lived in the house, and couldn't figure out why there were so many people with that last name.

More years ago than I care to mention, I lived across the road from from the first tee of a beautiful, well established golf course. Beyond the tee was a Greek temple from which I believed the sun rose every morning - glorious and magical! During a visit as an adult 20 years later, I realized that the Greek temple was an elaborately disguised tractor shed that happened to be due east from my livingroom window!

I would not swim near a pool drain. If I did a shark would burst through the drain and eat me. Didn't matter if it was a big drain with a grate over it or a tub sized drain.

In the 1960's the greater Seattle-Tacoma, Washington state area had many farms. As a youngster I liked to look at the old styled buildings, silos, gardens, animals, etc. However, many of the barns (the gambrel roof styled kind) had their glass windows placed at an angle. Instead of square shaped windows, they looked like diamond shaped windows, (with a cross in the middle of the glass). To me this looked wrong and paranormal. I would have nightmares about being trapped in these barns with the diamond windows and they would collapse around me, or some such frightening scenario. Today when an occasional diamond windowed barn is spotted, (usually in disrepair) I actually get somewhat nervous and there is no way I would ever go inside of one!!

When my friend was seven she was involved in the Swim Team. While at a meet, she got tired and had to stand up in the pool for a second, which resulted in a disqualification. When they told her she was "DQ'd", she thought it meant she got a free ice cream at Dairy Queen. Thw whole drive home, she looked out for Dairy Queen signs so she could go get her free ice cream.

i used to believe that disney world was in the sky

When I was little I thought my grandma owned the water tower because the only one I ever saw was on the way to her house so I associated it with her. Now I'm 27 and I still say "Look there's Grandma's Water Tower" when we go past.

I also used to think people worked up there purifying the water and went up and down the ladders but I never actually saw anyone doing it.

when i was little and our family was on a driving trip, i misunderstood my dad's explanation of the huge metal high tension power wire structures, and thought they were real, living monsters kind of marching across the land. i was so scared of them and would cry whenever i saw one.

When I was little, vans all had those metal ladders on the back and a luggage rack, with metal railings, on top. I believed there was a swimming pool on top of the van. A swimming pool was the only place I'd seen ladders or railings quite like that. (Plus, I was obsessed with pools in the first place.) I remember staring very hard at vans in front of us, hoping to see a little water sloshing out.

My mother tried to tell me the truth, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to ask some van owner to let me climb up and at least see if there was a pool up there, but it never happened.