Silly Things We Believed as Children

My grandfather was very old fashioned and "sex" discussions were verboten.  We raised chickens and rabbits.  When I was about 6 or 7 I knew that the baby chicks came from eggs but couldn't figure out the whole process.  Granddad told me that the rooster sprayed the eggs after the chicken laid them and that's what made the regular eggs turn in to baby chicks.

Now, I'm not real into biology so I blithely accepted this explanation and went my merry way.  Years later in my teens, a group of us (including my boyfriend, now DH) were just shooting the breeze and the topic of accidently breaking open a fertilized chicken egg when cooking came up.  Yup, I opened my mouth, shared my misinformation and was consequently teased for YEARS! 

We lived in Texas when I was kid. The mosquitos were hugh, as they were Texan, according to my dad. They were so hugh that I believed my dad when he told me that the mosquitos ate the tiny frogs that we would see after a hard rain.

That I could will myself to never get appendicitis or any bad disease and to live for more than 100 years. ...

This is a great topic Linda.

carolsd, I use to think the same thing about cats and dogs! 

I believed that if you swallowed a watermelon seed it would grow in your stomach ...   probably because my older sisters told me so ...

ooooooh, how about if you SWALLOWED GUM! Or crossed you eyes and the wind blew they would be crossed forever!

I remember seeing my 8th grade teacher necking with someone at her front door. That's when I stopped believing teachers knew everything.

For some reason, I assumed grownups were always grownups and had never been children. I was really susprised to find out everyone started out small and grew.

I thought that when I heard songs playing on the radio that the bands actually came to the radio station.  It would have made for a very crowded radio station!

yes......dogs were boys and cats were girls. but what was even worse was i thought doctors were men (my father was a doctor) and nurses were women...thank goodness for feminism!!!

I thought that if you took your face out of the water to take a breath when you were swimming, you would sink--so i could only swim with my head in the water holding my breath.

treeangel, i loved yours about the tree and the wind!!!!! 

My Grandma's kitchen windows had awnings in which the sparrows nested.  She told my brothers & I that the sparrows told Santa who was naughty and nice.  They were always around, so that's how Santa knew.  I respected the sparrows for this, never thought of them as feathered snitches.   Fast forward some years and I was listening to my Dad telling my little DDs about the mission of the sparrows nested in his awnings.

Dona Nobis Pacem,

Beth

I believed all those stories about spanish fly and gear shifts along with spiders nesting in bee hive hair dos.

I also believed that if a boy stuck his tongue in your ear or blew on it, that  turned you on so much that he could have his way with you. 

Not sure when I was completely disabused of this notion, but when I lay on my back on the grass and looked up at the sky (something I loved to do), I thought the sky was a big half-dome covering the flat earth I was lying on -- when I saw globes of the world, I figured we were all somewhere on the inside looking up at the upper rim of the globe.

And heaven was on the other side of the globe.

I think by the time I was 7, I was trying pretty hard to figure out how we were actually on the OUTSIDE of the globe, as my father insisted -- but it still LOOKED to me like we were on the inside!

My father threatened that a certain Mrs McGillicuddy would come and take us away if we misbehaved. Sometimes he even had to go to the phone to call her to get us to settle down (there were seven of us...so I forgive him for using this ruse. It must have been hard.)

My grandfather used to tell us about his "other" daughter (besides my mother), whose name was Imogene, and who was invisible. We'd always "just miss her" or she was in the other room. And of course if we went looking for her we'de never see her, because she was invisible. But sometimes there would be "signs" she had been around, like a game board left out in the middle of a game.

And of course, I believed my dolls came alive at night after I was asleep. 

Linda - I LOVE your sister!!  That is the first time I've heard that one!!

I grew up believing (until much later in life) that men had two dingles - one to stand up and pee with, and one that hung down in the toilet when they "pinched a loaf"! 

I was about 6 or 7 when I had a fleeting glimpse of my dad as he sat on the throne, and was certain I had figured out the mystery of all those body parts! 

My mom told me that when I pulled a baby tooth, if I kept my tongue out of the hole left by the missing tooth, the new tooth would be gold when it came in. It was easy for my mom telling me that, her parents had gold work done on their teeth. I have perpetuated the myth with my son and the children at church. but have you ever tried not putting your tongue in the hole where a tooth used to be!

I too believed the myth of the tampon before marriage. and what do you mean the bands don't play live at the radio station!

Sheila