neighbourhood: in the street

I used to believe there was quicksand at the top of my street. I saw a movie once where a man was "swallowed" by quicksand and the hat he had been wearing was left on top. The quicksand in the movie looked like mud, so when I saw a huge muddy area up the street, I thought for sure it was quicksand!

I used to believe that all houses with For Sale signs were intended for Sali, and thought Sali must be quite important to have a monopoly on all houses.
Then again, I am Welsh, and couldnt speak much English at the time!

When I was 5 I moved with my Mum & Dad and Brother & Siser to Kenilworth, which has a very old, ruined castle. We went to see some houses in Kenilworth before we moved there, and on the same day we visited the castle. Until we actually moved to Kenilworth (into a 3-bed semi) I thought we were going to live in the castle, and had nightmares about it!

I used to think that between about 8 to about 5 in the afternoon, the streets and highways were completely empty because all the kids were at school and all the parents were at work. I always thought the world was split up into parents and kids, it never occured to me that the world is full of all kinds of people with different jobs and that traffic happens ALL the time almost every hour of the day!

My brother used to think those yellow street signs with the wavy lines behind a car that indicated curves on the road ahead actually meant that there were snakes on the road ahead. If I recall correctly he was quite frightened by this.

When I was little we used to get those big bags of ice. So one day when i was just learning to read we went to go get some ice and we passed an office so I looked at my mom and told not to go there because they are "off ice".

i used to believe that there used to be postal workers underneath the mail boxes who would grab each letter as it was dropped and immediately dispatch it to its destination

When I was little, our Chicago address was on North Keystone Avenue. I thought the people across the street lived on South Keystone Avenue.

I used to think that when people moved house, they had to find a house they liked, and then show the people who lived there their house, and agree a trade. I thought that house moves would be incredibly difficult, finding someone to trade houses with.

when i was little, i thought that people put up phone lines so that the birds could have a place to rest. i called them 'bird wires'.

i used ot believe that the postman wrote all the letters. i once told my mum ' i bet the postman gets really tired hands from writing all the letters '

There was this homeless man who I would always see on certain streets with my dad and my sister when I was little (I still see him!), and my dad told me that he was the sandman, the guy who puts the crusty stuff in the corners of your eyes at night, so I would always imagine him coming into our house at night, and laughing as he sprinkled sand into my eyes.

I thought I actually had neighbours called the "Whosits". My mom always would refer to "the 'Whosits' up the street"

When I came home from school during lunch I saw a tent on the pavement (sidewalk), of course I got curious and inside was a man fixing the phonelines. I went home and told mum not to use the phone. I was worried that by using the phone the poor man might be electrocuted or something. I was mad at her when she was talking oon the phone later on!

When I was young I would get on a swing and launch myself as high as I could thinking if I jumped too high Superman would swoop down and catch me. I stopped believing that when I jumped off a swing got really high and racked myself on a fence.

When I was a child, I thought there was someone in the neighborhood who had all the houses. Her name was Sally, but spelled Sale. Then, one day, my father told me that all the signs that said, "For Sale," actually meant something else.