in the street

i always thought the "caution children playing" signs in our city's neighborhoods meant that the CHILDREN were very cautious about playing there. i always figured there was something bad about the neighborhood if the children were so cautious.

jessica

A friend of mine used to believe that the conveyer belts in airports that you pick your luggage up on ran from city to city

Laci

I used to think that trash and stuff on the side of the street had feelings, so I felt I had to rescue it or else it would get cold and lonely.
Those poor rappers...

cool cat

Until I was 11 I believed that the statue of a man in my local park was the Statue of Liberty.

I live in England....

Katie

I used to belive a man went round all the street lights to turn them on at night and that he would go and turn them all off in the morning!

yellownessy

As a small child, it seemed perfectly normal to me that all the houses in the road went away, to leave just blackness behind them, when I fell asleep. It was, therefore, also quite normal that they reappeared when I woke up the next morning. It really came as quite a shock later on to discover that this did not actually happen.

Little Boy Lost

I used to believe that people got their footprints in the sidewalk by stomping really hard.

Shantelle

I used to live in Mexico city, in the federal district.
My last name being ruiz, and first name dani, I thought that whenever someone talked about the DF, it was about me. I also thought that the neighborhood was named after me. I believed this until I was maybe a teenager.

"Distrito Federal"

I used to believe that all TV came from the TV station in our town. There was a guy who lived next door named Mr. Humphrey. I thought he was the Vice President, Hubert Humphry. I thought the whole world was within a few blocks.

Ralph

Our dad conviced us that the local mini-storage was really a midget colony, although they were nocturnal midgets and only came out at night. That's why the doors were always closed.

He also convinced us that the local pioneer cemetary was where the midgets were buried when they died. Took us a while to figure out they were really plots for cremated remains ....

Rachel

When I was very little there was and old man in my neighborhood that would talk a walk down my street everyday. My mom would sacre me and tell me that he was a crazy old man that took little kids and if i wouldn't finish my dinner he was going to come in the door and take me away. Till this day Really old men scare me.

Giselle

I used to believe when I was little that if you passed an American Flag at this one tall building you would have to be silent or George Washington would shoot his cannon at you.

R.H.

When I was little there were a signs inside the trams saying “No smoking or spitting allowed”. I understood about noisy spitting but I could never understand how someone could smoke out loud…

Dora

When I was in grade school, I loved to play on the playground bars at recess. One day I was in the back seat while my older brother and my mom were talking in the front of the car. I wasn't paying much attention to them but did hear my mom say that there used to be lots of bars on the street we were driving down when my mom was younger.

I sat up and looked around, trying to imagine the street filled with bars and happy children playing on them. Sounded like heaven to me!

To this day I can't go down that street without an inner smile, with that picture still in my head - even though I know now that the bars they were talking about were of the saloon variety, not the playground bars I knew and loved!

Robin

When i was a tiny lad, I used to think drug free zones were places where you can get drugs for free

Spencer

I thought my kids would enjoy seeing a snow plow drive down our street, since it’s not an everyday occurrence. So when I would hear the familiar rumble after a snowfall, I would shout, “snow plow!” and my son and I would run to the front window to see it go by.

I just found out the other day that my 5yo daughter thought “snow plow” was some kind of winter swirling tornado thing that went by. No wonder she would never run to the window with us!

Erika Lyons

My Mom always told me that the golden rule was that you can't ride your bike without shoes on, so I believed that was the golden rule for pretty much my whole childhood.

Dan

When I was about 5 or so, my good friend (same age) and I used to play this game called "Pie Pie". It involved us trying to unscrew the manhole cover near the bottom of my neighbor's driveway with my plastic tool toys. I don't know why we named it Pie Pie; we could have possibly been trying to pronounce "Popeye". Anyways, I thought that below the manhole there would be a world of dinosaurs while my friend thought there'd be a lot of hot women. Needless to say, we never managed to open it. My dad still likes to joke with me about this.

Matt

We lived one block from a fire station until I was 2-1/2 years old. I heard the sirens and would always run to the window to watch the trucks drive by. My father once carried me outside to watch. As they drove by, I asked him where they were going. He explained they were going to put out a fire at someone's house. I wondered WHY anyone would want to set fire to their house, just to have the fire trucks visit them. I never asked this question out loud, just pondered over it. Still ponder 'humanity' questions at age 62.

Janet

I remember whn my dad told me that if I said "water turn on" the water would turn on for me. Now at the time I didnt know that there were foot petals to turn on the water, so one day when I decided to turn on the water without my dad there, it didnt turn on. I said, "turn on water!" But it never came on. I stood there for 10 minutes until my father's co worker saw me staring at the fountain and told my dad. He laughed so hard! I'm still a bit irritated to this day about it.

Krumthi