in the street

The first time I ever saw the Rose Parade on TV the announcer said something like "the floats are all made entirely of flowers." I took him literally. I did not understand that they were DECORATED entirely with flowers. So I wondered for several years thereafter, how the floats were able to move under their own power -- how, in other words, one could build a working engine, tires, and all the rest, entirely out of flowers!

dcguy

All the mothers in our neighborhood tried to prevent us from playing in the open irrigation ditch near the main road by telling us that dogs peed in the ditch. Somehow, this was supposed to induce an eeeuuuuw reaction in us.

No, it didn't work. Never had a chance of working with little boys.

Don from Salt Lake City

As a kid I once asked an adult how all the streetlights knew when to turn on and off. I was told that they were all linked to a clock.

I immediateley imagined each streetlight as having an alarm clock inside it (like the old style bell & hammer ticking ones). But I was told they were all linked to the same clock.

I therefore thought that every streetlight was physically coming out of a MASSIVE alarm clock underground inside the earth, big enough for every streetlight in the world to come out of.

Fledge

I believed that all houses came equipped with power, water, and phones.

I believed that families lived in houses, and single people lived in apartments.

Silly

I thought that they built gas stations on top of where the oil deposits were in the ground. That's why the gas stations in my neighborhood were all clustered on corners of the same intersection.

When the big gas trucks would come along, they were filling up their tanker from the gas that was in the ground to take it somewhere else.

Also, when a gas station went out of business, it was because the finished sucking the gas out of the ground so they had to move somewhere else.

boxlight

I used to think that if there was a Dr on a street sign, that meant a doctor lived there.

Tim Priebe

I used to believe that 'Sky Scrapers' were big rakes on pivots, that swayed in a smooth side-to-side motion scraping the clouds.

I have since found out (1980ish) they are just tawdry, vacuous, boring old buildings and in more recent times... Sadly.. suitable targets for terrorist attack..!!
Innocents is bliss

rupert j p burchell

I used to believe that if you crossed the street without an adult, a giant would kidnap you and eat you. I was scared to death to cross streets after that, with or without adults.

Thank you for that, Grandma.

Matt C

My dad used to tell my sister, when she was young that the shredded tires from eighteen wheelers on the sides of the highway were road snakes.

David B. Los Angeles

Whenever I would go for a walk with my grandma when I was around the ages of 4 or 5 I firmly believed that if I ever stepped on a crack in the sidewalk that a police car would come roaring down the street and arrest me for doing so.

Kayta

When I was young and playing out with my best friend, an oldish lady walked past and said hello to her. The same lady would stop and give her treats and always say hello. My friend said the lady was ‘my lady’ (as in, she belonged to my friend) so I just presumed that we all had our own ‘my lady’ who would give us sweets and stuff, and we just had to find our one. I thought that for years until I twigged that this was a friend of my friend’s parents!! Ha ha.

Claire

When I was a little kid, I believed that I would fall through the little holes on the floor of the climbing structure at the playground.

I f my mom told me to jump down to the level with the holes, I would start crying becuase i didn't want to fall through the holes.

Anon

When I was around 5 I believed that the Doctors SURGERY was actually a SUGARY (which im sure dont exsist)which stocked lots of yummy lolly treats.
I would beg my mum to go over and over & when I did it was not a pleasant experience!

holly

When I was in Pre-K, I used to believe that if you stepped on cracks inbetween tiles, you would hurt yourself. I guess that comes from the saying "Step on a crack & break yo' momma's back"

Jazzmyn

when I was 5 I would run home terrified when a saw a backhoe driving up the street because I believed it would tear our house down

Bo Page

I used to think that double yellow lines painted onthe road were actually pipelines of honey for bears that lived underground.

tumteetum

When I was young I lived in an area (in the UK)where lots of new roads were being built. As the building was taking place these markers were used for some reason and they were usually a straight piece of wood with another piece across - like a crucifix shaped piece of wood a couple of feet high.

I used to think that these were the graves of people who had died while working on the new road - it made me feel that building roads must be a very dangerous job to have!

Lara

I grew up on a road that had a gravel pit, and there was a sign saying "trespassers will be persecuted". I knew that Jesus had been persecuted , but I'd mixed up / combined that with crucified.... so I never went in there. I didn't want to be nailed to a cross!

Beverley

When I was like six, I thought there were homeless people at the dump so I used to make whole sandwiches and put them in the garbage for the people to eat.

Jennifer