Besides Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, religion, and that creepy guy down the street who was overly friendly with the kids, most of us grew up with some wacky concepts we thought were true.
I Used to Believe is a collection of nearly 60,000 of those beliefs, many popular, some not-so-popular ones, and reader-submitted myths. If you had some kind of neighborhood or family urban legend growing up, it is probably on this website.
Did you once think teachers lived at school, that thunder is the sound of God bowling, or dragonflies can sew your mouth shut? Who hasn’t swallowed gum for the first time and wondered if they would live to tell about it? Why does the moon follow me? Wasn’t childhood fun?
This site brought back memories of one of my own beliefs growing up.
There was this house about three blocks away that was the typical neighborhood ‘haunted’ place. There was the rod iron fence, the un-mowed lawn, the creepy curtains in the windows, and a complete lack of any daytime activity. Sure it could have been a crack house I guess.
None the less we thought we could communicate with the ghosts or crack heads inside with a nine volt battery. Yes, somehow the step-child of the battery family is also a mini cell phone.
We tried to fight off the increasing hordes of zombies that were overtaking our town but we just didn’t have enough batteries. Or maybe, looking back, they were actual crack heads and we were trying to move forward the frontlines of the war on drugs with our nine volts of power.
Oddly enough, I didn’t find this one in their database.
What were your childhood beliefs?
Humor-blogs.com once believed Grandma lived at the airport because that is where you picked her up. And when you were tired of her you drove her back.
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by Howard, on January 23 2008 @ 5:53 pm
I believe a hooker was a wire that was just to hang your television from the ceiling simply because my parents didn’t want to discuss it, but they WERE letting me watch a show where the word was used.
by Paula, on January 23 2008 @ 8:20 pm
What a great site and a great review Chris. I laughed so hard at your battery story.
I always believed that when you swallowed gum, it stayed inside you forever, eventually turning into a giant blob that a doctor would have to take out. My Papa (grandpa) was a master teaser too and he told me things like, the reason I was so tall was because he fed me bugs and spiders at night when I was asleep.
My kids always thought their grandparents lived at the motel because that is where’d we visit them when they came to our town.
Oh and my favorite one, and one my parents swear they have no idea how or why I thought this, but I was pretty certain for a very long time that babies were made by people slapping their butts together.
by Paula, on January 23 2008 @ 8:21 pm
OK not sure how my last name got on there but can you remove it (just edit the name) Chris? Sorry!
by ChrisC, on January 23 2008 @ 11:54 pm
@Howard: TJ Hooker.
@Paula: Last name deleted. Thanks for the compliments on the review although I thought I could have done more with it but I wanted to keep the post at about 300 words so people had time to comment with their own beliefs.
by Theresa, on January 24 2008 @ 4:45 am
We had one of those “haunted” houses on our block too, and one time I went into the garden (which was completely filled with trees so that the sun couldn’t get through) with some older kids. They had rigged some sort of zombie and had some people dressed up as ghosts, and they nearly scared the shit out of me. I didn’t go near the place for years after that. Besides that, I used to believe that if you crossed your eyes they would get stuck that way forever.
by Rickey Henderson, on January 24 2008 @ 11:55 am
Rickey used to believe that thunder was caused by gnomes bowling in the nearby mountains. Come to think of it, we’re still pretty certain that’s true.
by diesel, on January 24 2008 @ 12:13 pm
I remember my brother telling me that a lot of things were poisonous. Like that thing at the bottom of a banana, that sort of connects it to the peel. If you ate that, you would die. I think it made sense to me because my parents were homicidal maniacs.
by Jean-Luc Picard, on January 24 2008 @ 1:34 pm
A gret post. Some of those childhood beliefs are fascinating.
I always wondered how Sata Claus got down the radiator.
by Sean, on January 24 2008 @ 1:34 pm
I used to believe that the tooth fairy would come into my room at night in a tutu and sparkling slippers whenever I lost a tooth. Then one night the tooth fairy collapsed on my floor. That’s when I noticed he had a mustache and smelled like bourbon, just like my dad.
by FIar, on January 24 2008 @ 6:04 pm
I used to think that whatever the weather was outside was the weather EVERYWHERE.
by Easter » Childhood Beliefs, on January 25 2008 @ 1:03 am
[...] ChrisC wrote an interesting post today on Childhood BeliefsHere’s a quick excerptBesides Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, religion, and that creepy guy down the street who was overly friendly with the kids, most of us grew up with some wacky concepts we thought were true. ibelieve01 I Used to Believe is a collection … [...]
by ChrisC, on January 25 2008 @ 1:20 am
Great stories/beliefs everyone. It is amazing what we thought was reality as well as the magnitude of the warped mind some of you have hehe.
And hello to newcomer Sean. From the looks of your reply I think you’ll like it here.