people

My grandpa died of a heart attack shortly before my birth. For years, I thought his heart was attacked by something, like tiny ants who entered his body with swords and such and attacked his heart and killed him. No matter who had this heart attack, that same army of ants would attack people's hearts, so my little head believed. Fortunately, I finally asked Dad, and he told me what happened, in little kid terms.

Cara

when passing a cemetary my dad said, "do you know what all those flowers are for?"
"no"
"under each flower is a dead body"

my mom protested: "don't tell her that!"
i assumed she was yelling at him for lying to me as he often did, so i didn't believe him.

optional

When I was preschool age, I thought that the firing squads and death squads mentioned on TV involved running over people with emergency vehicles.

Mari

I believed that the rays of sun you see coming through the clouds were actually the spirits of dead giants going up to heaven

Beth

I used to believe that your shoelaces could get caught in an escalator and you would get horrifically mauled as you got dragged into the tiny space between the floor and the stair.

Anon

I remember as a kid when I would go visit family in MO and I would always hang out with my cousin. Well, the area had a lot of grave sites, and we got it into our heads that if we held our breath as we passed by the cemitaries the gohsts wouldn't fallow us and haunt us. Needless to say I don't believe it anymore, but I still find myself holding my breath.

Crazy kid

When my sister and I were little, from our bedroom upstairs at night, we could see the reflection of our living room window in the window of the house nextdoor. The curtains created two seperate curvy reflections of light that would flicker as our mom walked past the window. We thought these were actually the ghosts of the elderly couple that had recently passed away, having sex.

Anon

I used to think that when people tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building, the ambulance crew would be waiting for them with a safety net at the bottom, and it seemed kind of funny, because falling from a tall building in the city would take at least one minute, so they'd have to set it up very quickly.

Anon

I found out the old guy who lived next door had died, and had been cremated. One day not long after we were driving into Lancaster and my Mom pointed out the hospice to me. It had all these silver pipes running in and out of one side of the biggest building. I thought that they pushed the dead oldies into these pipes and they landed in the incinerator. I found out (years) later that these were air-conditioning ducts.

Aegir

That after you died the people could still hear you. When I was 9 or 10 my Uncle died and I felt really good that he could hear all the good things the people were saying about him.

Swahili

I used to believe,and till this day can't prove it,that the reason people die is because everyone is born to have only a certain amount of heartbeats and once you reach the amont you have,something happens,then you die....I think I was like 5 or 6 yrs old.

Donna

When I was about seven, I went through a phase. I thought that everything I did I was going to die. If I stepped in a grease pool (from a car) with my good shoes on I was going to catch on fire. And if I put my plastic toys in the bathtub they would melt and burn me. And i also thought that if I got a carpet burn I would, well, burn. One day I got a carpet burn and started crying and screaming and It turned out my knees were just red. That was the end of that phase.

Blah Blah Blah

For one reason or another, my sister used to believe that whenever someone, anyone, died, their body would atomatically assume the position of Christ; that is, their feet together and their arms splayed outwards.

Riva

I used to believe that the movies used convicts in scenes where people died, especially in cowboy and indian type movies. I figured they were expendible because they were in prison and nobody cared about them. I learned later about stuntmen and blanks and special effects.

Jacki

When we were young my mom told us that if we ever hit our parents, that when we died we would be buried with one hand sticking out the grave, and that a man would come past and whip the hand everyday.
It terrified us for years, until we realised that we would be dead, so like, who cares ?!?

Jiminy

I used to believe that when you visited a graveyard, the ground would suck you in and that is how you died.

Megan

When I was younger (about 10 years old) I thought that the death cross (you know,the scall and the bones in a cross over it) meant the same as the hospital cross. So when my grandma was on the hospital me and my sister drew her a drawing. I wrote "you`re gonna be fine" etc. And in the bottom of the drwaing I put a death cross with a frame around it! I`m sure that must have been nice to rescive......

Death Cross

I was always told that the good die young, so then I always thought my grandparents must have been really bad at some point in their lives, cos they were really old when they died (they seemed pretty good to me)now I am getting older I couldn't possibly believe it!

Bridgy

When I was really little my parents made me go to a funeral and touch the body. I asked why it was so hard and cold and I was told that it was really wood that had been in the freezer because right after someone dies they go to heaven and then someone has to recreate the body. When I asked why some people did not have bodies to touch they said they did not have a good picture to redo them!

WOO

I used to believe that the R.I.P on graves meant that was the persons name 'rip', i always wondered why all the rip's seemed to be dying!

Jess