in the street

When I was young I used to believe that streetlights, instead of coming on automatically when it got dark, were in fact operated by two men sat in a control room with loads of switches.

Jess

I used to think that ambulances constantly cruised around neighborhoods and when you needed one, you just ran outside and flagged one down.

pms

When I was young I used to believe that speed bumps were actually where they buried dead policemen. I guess I thought they wanted to continue serving their community post-mortem!

Tristan

My partner used to believe that cul de sacs were full of dead hens. This was because her mother who had a strong Yorkshire accents and had told her they were dead 'ens!

Anon

i used to think that if you went to high on a swingset and went all the way around the beam you'd turn inside out.

Anon

There is a huge factory (which I now know is owned by Sunoco) next to the highway. Whenever we would drive by my mom would tell us that's where Batman lived. For years I thought Batman really lived there. Weird thing is, in all the movies he lives in a HUGE house, yet I still believed he lived in a huge pipe filled factory that shot out fire.

Babe

When I was three, my mom told me that if I stepped on the blue paint in handicapped parking spots while it was raining, I'd slip and fall. But the yellow was okay. To this day (I'm 15), I still avoid the blue lines by habit!

Maria R

My neighbors across the street own horses, and when I was small I thought the horses were the people who lived in the house, since I never saw the human owners. And I thought that the horses would learn to talk every new years' eve, because then they would throw loud parties where everyone yelled.

Emily S.

In Canada we have signs that read:
Max Clearance - 6'10" (or with other various measurements for truck heights on them) and I used to believe that we had a really tall guy, named Max Clearance in our fair city of Halifax!!!

Jude Horrocks

When I was little my dad told me to throw my gum in the street that way it would fill up the cracks and they (the city) wouldn't have to pave the roads as much. It wasn't until someone asked me why I always threw my gum in the street that I started doubting my dad (I was 28).

Lisa F

Where I live there is this dancing place called The Flamingo. One time when we were going to the store near it there was this sign that said "No Parking for Flamingo Customers" however because of how the letters were spaced my brother thought it said "No Parking for Flaming o customers" and asked my mom "What is the "Flaming O" some kind of barbeque place"? My mom was really confused till he pointed out the sign and then she almost died laughing!

Nate

I used to think that the man in the black coat and top hat on those neighborhood watch signs was a real person. I used to avoid looking out the living room window in fear that he’d be there outside spying on me.

Evie

I used to think there was a big piece of elastic, with one end attached to my back and the other attached to the letterbox on our front door. This meant that if I walked round a lamppost I would get stretched and then have to quickly walk backwards around it again so that I didn't get tangled up.

Dan Littler

We lived in Fort Davis, Panama, when I was 4 yrs old. Mom commented, probably to a visiting neighbour, that "it's so hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk!"

... It didn't work.

Enid

When I was four, my dad told me the volleyball poles stuck in the beach were put there by walruses as part of a migratory ritual every August. I totally believed him. Jerk.

erin

I used to believe there was a tribe of indians living behind a long wooden fence alongside the path I used to take to school. I had to hold my breath as I went past this fence or they would kill me. What a tribe of indians was doing in the middle of Cambridgeshire I really don't know.

Claire

I usd to believe that at restaurants that had a BYO sign out the front, you had to "bring your own" meal.

Fiona

i thought the for sale sign buy owner things meant that u could also buy the owner

brandi

When I was a child, my mother told me that beehives grew in fire hydrants. She said this because she knew I was afraid of bees, and she didn't want me to climb and play on the fire hydrant in front of my grandfather's house.

Needless to say, I grew up afraid of fire hydrants. I would walk down the street, see a fire hydrant, and cross the street to avoid passing it.

I believed this until I was in high school. Then one day I asked myself, "Haaayyy..... did you actually ever SEE any fire hydrants with beehives in them???" Duuuhhh.......

When I confronted my mother and asked her why she lied to me, she had long forgotten the incident and had no idea what I was talking about!

cateye =^@@^=

I thought that the stripes of the zebra crossings was from a squashed zebra

Helen