in the street

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 always thought that roads with the "No Outlet" signs were roads where the houses had no electricity. I thought this until I was 8 or 9.

Ryan

That streets that had similar sounding names or that started with the same letter were always located by each other. When visiting relatives in a different town, I can remembering looking for Candace Drive by Canada Street, never looking at a map, because, well it seemed like they would be by each other.

Nancy

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

Years ago in the early 70's I believe Ronald McDonald was at every McDonald's in America. I convinced my little brother and sister of this. We went to our very first McDonalds and of course no Ronald. They cried the whole time. I was older but I wanted to cry too.

Derrick

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

My Grandfather convinced me that there was a little man who lived under the road who turned the cats eyes on for us when we passed.

danzig

When building roads in the state I live in (U.S.A.), they use "local rock," e.g. rock from the quarry nearest the work site. Occasionally, this gives the road surface a slight tint of color, such as red or green. As a newlywed, moving here with my husband, I commented on the freeway having a greenish tint, and my husband told me that the state painted all the roads green. I actually believed him! He finally set me straight on the matter when he overheard me very seriously repeating his "tale" to a friend! Thirty-eight years later and I STILL can't believe I fell for that!!!

Dopey!

When someone was awarded the "key to the city" I thought it was a real key which operated all the city's locks. Then I was worried that the recipients could gain access to my house!!!

Nathaniel Tiffany

I used to think that people with a sign outside their house saying GARAGE SALE meant people were selling their garages

Snow girl

When I was little, my cousins used to live at the end of a court. Because the road didn't continue but just ended at their house, I believed that after their backyard would be only sea, because it was the edge of Australia. It never occured to me to wonder why there were more houses behind my cousins house, though.

Jem

The house I grew up in when I was young had a sewer cover at the end of the driveway. I used to think that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lived down there, so I would stomp on it everyday while waiting for the bus hoping that they would bust out and say, "Turtle Power!!"

Rebecca

When I was about 8 or 9, I used to believe that there were giant people under the streets that would hold up the speed bumps with their arms and heads. One time, I tried acting it out and my parents asked me if I was praying.

Jackie

I used to think the little power boxes at the top of telephone poles were people's mailboxes, and I always wondered how on earth they managed to collect their mail every day.

feebs

me and my friends used to believe that my neighborhood had a bad guy lurking about and that he was going to steal me and my friends' bikes and toys that we left outside at night, so we created a secret agent group where we would run through parks and back yards looking for mischevous characters. i'm sure we were the only mischevous looking things around.

Kat

When I was little I asked my mom how the lights changed at a stop light. For some reason, she told me that there were "little green men" in the boxes on the pole that worked there. I told her this recently and she said she doesn't remember when or why she would ever tell me this...we laugh about it all the time now!

Carrie