telephones

When I was little I thought that to dial a number with letters in it, you had to yell the word into the phone. For the longest time, I thought you would dial 1800, and yell DISNEY into the phone. I never realized that there were letters on the number keys. DUH! I do know that now though.

Megan

When i was about 5, i remember sitting

at home on the telephone to my father

I was eating jam sandwiches at the time

and he told me that i hsould put

little crumbs down the leads so he

could taste it

i used to believe that this was true

every time i was ont the phone to some

one ans was eating something i used to

send crumbs down the telephone line

Laura

when i was young, i used to believe that u could send money to people by rolling the money up and sticking it through the speaker holes!

alexandria

Because I could never figure out how telephones worked, I thought they used wires to connect everyone's house up with everyone else's in the world.

Rachel

I used to believe that if you played with the phone without permission, the operator would come through the phone holes and stab you in the ear. After learning this, I never played with the phone again.

OperatorLady

When I was little, my mom called my grandmother on the phone. She let me listen for her to pick up and answer. I heard the busy signal and handed the phone back to my mom rather confused. She listened and then told me that "the lion was busy." In shock and horror I imagined that this was the sound you heard when someone (like my grandmother)was being killed and eaten by a lion.

Ary

I never saw anyone use the numbers on a telephone, so I didn't know why it had numbers. I thought that the numbers were some sort of advanced feature that nobody ever used.

Anon

Once when I was playing with a toy telephone, my grandma said, "Is the line busy?". But I thought she said "Is the lion busy?"! For the longest time, I thought that lions were telephone operators.

Maria

I believed that telephone operators were in the telephone poles, and I thought that you had to be really skinny to be a telephone operator.

Anon

my little sister has recently admitted to thinking that the beeping noise you hear when u key a number into a telephone, was a bug trapped under the key pads squeeking every time u tried 2 squish it, this explained her never using the telephone when she was younger...

olivia

I used to think there was this group called the "Local Trude" and I kept accidentally dialing their telephone number when I meant to call home or call one of my friends. I didn't know who this "Local Trude" was, but I didn't like them.

Then one day I realised that it was just a recording saying "Your call could not go through", but I'd misheard it as "You called the Local Trude."

Athazagoraphobia

When I was 6, I would often wonder what would happen if you called your own phone number from another phone in the house. When I asked my mom, she told me that a group of telephone workers watched what numbers you dialed, and if you dialed your own they would come and investigate. Somehow my young brain interpreted this as "A hundred tall, scary men in black trenchcoats will come, stick you in the back of their van, and kidnap you". It's no wonder I left phones alone.

Alison

When I was small (5?), I thought I figured out how to use the telephone on my own. My best friend's name was Jennifer, so I decided to call her one day. I picked up the receiver and was delighted to discover that there were letters corresponding to the numbers. I simply dialed her name (it was the same as mine, I knew how to spell it): j-e-n-n-i, etc. By the second "e," it began to ring, and a man I didn't know answered. I dutifully gave the phone to my mom.

Jenny USA

When I was little I thoght that the round can-shaped objects on top of telephone poles were full of oil and spiders.

Miranda

A friend's child wanted to call one of his friends from school and I told him he needed to have their phone number or his parent's name because we could look in the phone book, but we'd need his parent's name. He looked at me very matter of factly thumbing through the phone book and said, "Where's the kid's section?" I just had to laugh!

RLD

I used to believe that you had to tell your mini autobiography when recording a voicemail greeting, so you would have to say something like 'hello, my name is John Smith, I am 32 years old with a big brother Michael and I'm a very exotic person, so please leave a message after the tone. Hahahahaha.

Anon

When people used to tell me that "the line was busy" (on a telephone), I always pictured a lion sitting at a desk with large stacks of paperwork to finish.

Payton

When my mom tried to telephone someone and she'd hang up because the line was busy, I thought she said "The lion was busy." And I thought there was a lion in a big cage somewhere and if he was eating a big steak for lunch or was otherwise busy, calls couldn't get put through till he was done.

Anon

When my mother called someone, then hung up the phone within a couple of seconds saying "busy signal," I thought that meant the phone company knew the other person was too busy to anwer the phone and was letting my mother know.

Anon

When I was younger I couldn't figure out why telephones needed electricity if a tin can 'telephone' wourked fine without it.

M!ke