in the street

When I was little me and my sister were told a story to keep us from going outside without our parents knowing. They called this guy the Sack man. He was actually some old guy that carried around a sack and went around picking up cans and garbage. He supposedly put any kids he found inside in that sack and they would dissapear instantly. So we would sit at the window and watch him go by our house picking up cans and stuff in the road, and soon as the coast was clear we'd go outside. To this day I still see him sometimes and I always think of him as the Sack man

Mallory

in between certain grouping of houses
we had these greenbelt grassy spaces.
they had a bit of a dip in them - probly used to drain rain water

the 'dips' were excellent for tobagganing
but everyone was always scared to go on the 'steep' hill.
- having just recently visted the area my mind images that used to be were completely smashed as even the 'steep' hill id hardly recognize as a slant.
how we ever got speed off of those 'hills' was beyond me.

all the neighborhood kids and i would halfto pass through
the "big dip" enroute to our elementary school.
it was common knowledge to all of us kids
that these dips were leftover from medeval times
that castles used to be built up in the center of the 'dips'
and the remaining edges were the moat.

vanessa

the neighbourhood i lived in as a child
was pretty simplistic,
it was a square shape i guess;
a full block.
i lived on one of the inside corners
and all my friends lived within that area.
the concenting rule of the parents was,
you were only aloud to play
up and down the two streets
making an 'L' shape.
only if you had an adult with you
or it was the bike parade day could you
ever do the full 'loop' ( use the othe two streets that make the square block )

i always found it unfair that we only got
the 'L'
while the other half of the block got the 'oop'
it made 'loop' walks alot more exciting though.

vanessa

My dad used to tell me that if I didn't lift up my feet at the end of the escalator, I'd get sucked in, because I'd always be playing on the steps as we went up or down. I still have never stood still when I got to the end, I know I won't get sucked up but I don't wanna risk it.

katie

When I was little, there was a small store down the road of my grandparents house and the owner told me that the mutant ninja turtles lived in a manhole in the middle of the store.

Josh

i thought lease was some rich famous lady that everyone loved since i saw all these signs on buildings that said *for lease*
i thought she was taking over the world or something, buying all those stores and stuff

reh

i used to believe that if you fell through the space between steps, you'd fall to hell. i was morbidly afraid af steps with spaces between them.

tm

Really not sure where to put this...

I used to believe that angels lived in the streetlights, because when I walked home after dark so the streetlights were on, I used to squint my eyes so the light went out to all directions and I thought they looked like angels.

Maja, Norway

When I was a child, I saw a video of a building falling down and I really believed that ALL buildings fell down. A few years later we went to a city with lots of tall buildings and I was terrified because I was convinced that at any minute they would fall down. I was also confused that all the foolish people walking on the streets and driving in the cars wouldn't the least bit afraid.

Danie

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

Shantelle

When I was younger, I always thought (for some reason) that when the sign for a service station said 'Not 24 hours', it meant that it didn't take 24 hours to get there (and the ones that didn't say that did take 24 hours to get there, I suppose).

One day while I was in the car with my Dad, I pointed it out to him, and he asked me if I knew what it meant. I said yes, so he asked me what, and I was about to say what I thought, when I suddenly realised it meant that the service stations weren't open 24 hours.

So I quickly said that, and never told him what I really believed.

Sarah

When I wad younger, there was a saying "If you step on a crack you'll break your mother's back". I really did belive that thos was true, I use to imagine this happening. So for a very long time, I wouldn't step on any crack in the sidewalk.

Michelle

When I was around 3 I remember watching the garbage men come down the street and seeing them throw everything in the back of their truck. I beleived if my Brother and I stood near the front yard they would throw us in there as well. I remember hiding under the front porch every time they came and refusing to come out until they were long gone.

Mike

When my wife was a kid, she used to think that highway speed bumps were for the blind.

Anon

I truly believed that body shops were there for those that wanted to replace their own body parts. The fact that there were always people hanging around reenforced the thought. How I wish it were true!

Anon

A belief I held high for a long, long time: Allotment gardens were the result of our Dutch government's bigoted perception of handicaped people.
People with achondroplasia (dwarfism) were forced to live outside of town, in special little villages at the edge of town or along the highway, because they would only cause trouble in a busy town's traffic; according to our government their anatomy would probably make them not manoeuvrable enough to cross busy roads (people in central Holland drive like maniacs), and they would be too short for people to notice.

This belief held ground --and made my blood boil for the injustice-- until I was 15, because it made sense. Most allotment gardens have sheds that look like miniature houses (complete with cosy-looking curtains) and most have all sorts of vegetables growing - indicating the need for self-sufficiency.

... Phew.

~Kaye

I used to th that the 'To Let' signs on buildings said 'toilet' and was always amazed how many public loos there were and wondered why we had to stop at service stations for rest breaks when there were loos everywhere!

Beth

When I was little my brother told me that the electrical towers where dinosaurs...So every time I passed the towers, I would scream and tell my dad to drive faster.

Kaite

When I saw "NO PARKING" painted on the pavement near the curb, I read "NO" upside down as "ON". I thought that was where your car was supposed to be with the engine running, thus being "on". "PARKING" was where you were supposed to park.

Anon