disasters

When I was very young I had an irrational fear that the world was about to run out of air. Selflessly I'd hold my breathe as oftern and as long as I could so that there'd be enough for everybody.

toon

I used to believe (when I was little) that when there was a dark sky early (like at 6 p.m.) there was a storm coming with tornados, so I put all my Hot Wheel cars in a bucket and then I put the bucket on our porch, thinking it would make our house not be able to get knocked down. lol

Henry

When I was in 4th grade, almost every kid in my class was convinced that the peninsula of Florida would sink into the ocean by the year 2000.

Anon

I used to believe that when there was an earthquake, rocks would fall from the sky.

Nai

When I was about four or five, I used to think that a "cyclone" and a "cyclops" were the same thing.

Anon

Growing up in the Midwest - there were frequent tornado warnings.
For those of you who are not familiar with tornados, it is recommended that you open windows to help equalize the air pressure in your home to keep it from exploding.
I would go behind my father and close the windows because I thought the tornado would push thru the screens as little tornados then re-form into the large tornado in our house!

Linda M

Once in second grade, (I thought) a teacher told me "If you don't throw your trash away in the trash can, the world will stop spinning." I certainly didn't want that to happen! Her scare tactic worked good. At 24, I still make sure my trash gets thrown away properly.

Danna

when i was little i thought that if i littered somewhere in the world there was going to be a tornado.. i thought this because my cousin told me that..

Anon

When I was little, I never would have thought--not in a million years--that I would live to be 30 without a) being stuck in quicksand, b) having an encounter with hot lava, and c) having to break out of prison. No, I've had a boring life.

Sol

I used to believe that the handle above the door in most cars was to keep tornadoes from sucking you up if you held tight.

Valerie

I used to believe that when someone said a tornado hit somewhere, I thought it meant that there were huge tomatoes that hit the city.

Anon

When I was younger, my father told be about Tornados. Well, I was scared out of my freakin' mind when I found out that something could just rush by at any given minute destroying everything in its path!

That night, I filled my suitcases--many of which said 'Going to Grandmas!' on them (does anyone else remember those?)--with everything: money, pictures, stuffed animals, clothes, whatever.

I fell asleep that night holding the handles to about four suitcases, ready to spring into action in case a tornado came tearing through the house.

The next morning, I woke up and found all my suitcases on the floor.

Laurie

I used to think that tornados were made when God farted.

Catherine

I was under 5 years old when I learned that lava (VOLCANO LAVA) was actually really hot, molten rock.

I remember looking out my window and feeling REALLY scared because there was a big rock in the yard RIGHT BY MY ROOM! I always used to imagine it one day bubbling up or exploding, with the hot lava coming to get me in my sleep or something...

Sapphi

I used to believe that when people talked about the tectonic plates, they meant that the entire earth rested on two dinner plates and that is what kept the earth in space. Because of this, I couldn't understand how the whole earth didn't shake when there was an earthquake.

Anon

When I was a kid my father used to say that if I did not get out of the woods until 18:30 one FIREBALL would followed me and burn me if it arrived near to me. all of this was to get me out of the woods ...

juscreison

At school they taught us about earthquakes in Geography. I then imagined people falling in to these holes opening up in the ground and then the ground closing again on top of them. I constantly worried about this happening and was nervous every time a lorry or train rumbled by, thinking this is it. Unfortunately they forgot to tell us that this was extremely unlikely in the North West of England.

Jean

When I was 6 years old I was afraid of the "eye of the hurricane" passing over us because I thought it was a real eye.

Rosemary

I used to believe that tornadoes were potatoes. Whenever there was a tornado warning I thought Mr. Potatoe head was walking around stomping on houses.

sm

Until I was in 3rd grade, I used to always make sure that I slept with my back facing the window during tornado season, even though tornades were fairly uncommon in my area, they still happened, so I wanted to be sure that a tornado didn't happen while I was sleeping and facing the window, because glass pieces would fly into my eyes and blind me!

Of corse, I think if there were a tornado while I was sleeping, I'd know, and my window and where I slept on my bed where about 8 feet apart...

Amanda