neighbourhood: going shopping

My brother--who is two years younger than me--used to tell me stories about the Snoopy Store. He said he'd gone on this field trip once and at the mall they'd stopped at there was a store where Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and all of the Peanuts characters and Snoopy's family lived. He said that they had everything Snoopy there, and as I am a Peanuts freak, I totally believed him, and when I was seven, I asked my dad to take us to the mall so we could find the Snoopy Store. I totally bought this lie 'til I was about ten. Thanks for deluding me, bro.

When my sister and I were little, our dad told us that the men working at this one store we went to, liked little girls and would steal us and take us away to their country to be their brides. We got so scared that one day when we went to the bathroom there, we would not come out until our dad came in to get us and carry us out of the store.

When I was little, I believed in "good" and "bad" shops. I hadn't quite grasped the object of getting change when you didn't pay them the exact amount, so I thought that nice shops gave you money back for shopping with them, and nasty shops didn't. I can remember thinking I was really smart with my little theory, until one shocking day...We'd been to sainsburys before and they's always given us change, so I thought they liked me. One day though, WE DIDNT GET ANY CHANGE. My parents started walking off so I stood by the cashtill waiting.They eventually had to drag me away screaming "they dont like me anymore!!"

When I was little I thought that black Friday was when all the poor black people went christmas shopping. This is why they had all great sales on that day. I didnt know that it wasnt true until today.

When my mom came home with a new coat or purse from the store, I'd always like to look into the pockets because they kept those freshner salt packets in there. When I found them, I use to think the packets were drugs that the person making the coat "left" in there. I always wanted to call the cops about each packet I found.....

I used to think that there were Spanking Stores that parents took their children to if they misbehaved while shopping. At these stores different spanking objects could be used depending on how bad the kids had been.

Ok, I haven't even started reading this website yet, but I just had to post this. Did anyone else have an obsession with mannequins when they were little? I had all kinds of ideas about what they did, how they "lived". One of my beliefs was that when the store closed, they would go to the pajama section, put on pajamas, and if it was a department store with furniture, they would lay on the beds and go to sleep. If there were no beds in the store, they would "lean" against the clothing racks.

One time when I was little, my mom took me to a department store in the mall for some Christmas shopping. The store was somewhat busy. For some reason, I just blurted out, "Mom, do mannequins have BUTTS?!" Some people looked over and smiled, and my mom was kind of embarrassed. She said quietly, "No, they don't." I blurted out, "Well then how do they go to the BATHROOM?!"

when i was younger my aunt, my grandma (who i called momo) and my mother all told me that the manakins in the stores would bite me if i touched them. needless to say, they didn't, but i still cringe when i see them. i happen to have a very vivid imagination, and i can just imaging one jumping out at me!

When I was little, I would sometimes wait for my mom in the car while she ran into the store or finished her shopping. I used to believe that if I sat perfectly still when someone walked by, they would think I was a statue and not kidnapp me. Sometimes it occured to me that I might not pull it off because I was wearing a seatbelt and clothes but overall I thought it worked well. I believed this until I was about 10.

My dad once told me that the litte greasy spots on the pavement of parking lots were little kids that let go of their parents hand when walking into a store. I believed that until I was about 8.

When I was a boy, I used to live in the bottom of a bowl shaped area in a small farming village in upsate new york. I used to believe that Indians were standing at the top of the hill like in some bad western, and every time I had to get groceries, I would run into the house from what I knew was going to be the next Custer's Last Stand.

When I was a kid my mother made me hold on to the shopping cart as she pushed it along, so I would not wander off. This was so ingrained that to this very day (I am now 38) I still hold on to the cart when my wife and I are shopping. I am not even aware that I am doing it, and when I catch myself it always makes me laugh.

When I was younger me and my mother used to go shopping a lot. She tells me that I used to talk to the manequins believing that even though they didn't move that they were still looking at me. I used to have full blown conversations with them.

I used to get scared when they announced the mall was closing that we wouldn't make it out on time. For whatever reason, I thought if you got caught there after closing you'd be turned into a mannequin.

I used to think that the store clerks knew everything, since they could always tell where a certain item was in a store. When I was reaching the 'curious' age, I asked a clerk was a penis was...naturally, all involved were embarrassed except for me. :) Now that I look back, I realize how stupid I was.

'Black Friday', the traditional first shopping day of the christmas season in the US is so named, I now know, due to the fact that the immense revenues gained by stores therein, put them often 'in the black'. That is, operating at a profit. However when I was little I seriously used to believe that on Black Friday, only Black people were allowed out on the streets.