in the street

I used to think that the signs outside peoples doors that said "No Soliciting" meant the same as "No Socializing," so the people who lived in those houses were mean and didn't want friends.

Rachel

You know those "Maximum Occupancy ###" signs in buildings? I used to believe that when a building reached it's maximum occupancy, if just one more person stepped inside, the whole building would collapse. For the longest time I would, to my great frustration, try to count the people in any building I went into.

Jong

when i was little i used to belive that the queen lived in my towns town hall, i would always look up to the windows and wave to see if she would wave back

kat

I used to believe that if you wanted to move to another house, you had to find someone who would be willing to trade houses with you. And whoever was going to be moving into the better house, would have to give the other homeowner one dollar (I was very young, so I thought one dollar was a LOT of money!).

Anon

when I was little, and on road trips. My mom used to say that the telephone poles were full of spaghetti sauce and the wires were spaghetti and the metal can shaped things attached to the top were full of cheese. and when people were hungry and short on cash they could have spaghetti.

whitney stillwell

My mam used to tell me that the colourful patterns that were left in the middle of the road when it rained was fairies washing (it was actually oil). She said that if we walked over it they would have to wash it again. It wasn't till i got older that i realised it was just coz she didn't want us trailing it in the house.

Laura

I used to wonder why signs on buildings said "Off Ice", because there was only ice sometimes during the winter. I thought they were mean for not taking the signs down.

BobbieMac

I used to believe that houses walked about at night. When you were asleep your houses walked about and talked to other houses. This is why I thought they had to put nails in floorboards to stop them walking about. I still believe this and I'm now 42.

The old man from the sea in a walking house

There was a burn outside of the house I used to live at as a child. Me, and a friend of mine at the time believed that if we dug at the side of the burn, we would find gold, and we spent all of our time digging for gold.

Yes, I had a strange childhood :)

Magnus

My mum's dad used to tell her that there were gnomes on top of buildings that pulled up lifts by long ropes

Steph

I grew up in Southern California. Where there are palm trees planted all over the place. Many streets are lined with palm trees on both sides for miles. I believed for years that if you followed any of these streets that you would end up at the beach. No matter what.

Marisol Torres, UT

you know how there are warning signs on fences saying "beware of dog"? well, when i was little and i saw a Long Fence sign on someones fence, i thought it meant "beware, this is a very long fence"

Shannon

I thought the "To Let" signs on buildings meant they were public toilets.

Scottish Laddie

When my brother was little, he believed that the lights on top of bridges and tall chimmneys when illuminated at night, were Gods car lights. How cute is that!

Lucy

In the neigborhood where I grew up, there was a dead-end street with a big yellow sign saying "NO OUTLET". I always wondered who would want to live in the houses on this street, if they couldn't plug anything in.

romulus

In the city we grew up in, there is a door the seemingly leads nowhere. It is on a hill, going up a street. Above it is just a parking lot, or it was when we were kids. The door was just there with concrete leading to the side of the hill. We always believed the door was the entryway to Hell, and no adult ever would tell us it's real purpose. Still is spooky to see it there, in 2005, leading "nowhere".

Wings

You know how you'll be driving along the highway and see a shoe on the road?
When I was a little girl, I asked my Dad why there were sometimes shoes on the road and he told me in a very sad voice that "somebody didn't look both ways when they crossed the street." That has had me freaked (and looking both ways) to this day, and I'm now 49!

Charlotte

When I was young I used to believe that if you stepped on the lines of a sidewalk...Freddy Kruger would come out of the sideblock cracks and kill you! hahha.

Anon

when I was in elementary school, believed that while I was in a crosswalk, I was protected from being hit by a car. I used to walk right out on to the street. I'm lucky to be alive I think.

Sylvia

when I was young, we lived near a hospital, which had the big "H" on the top of the building. Every time we would drive by I would say "There's the H hospital", assuming that there was an A hospital, B hospital, etc., etc. It was not until I was much older that I realized the H meant Hospital.

M.D.M.