What silly childhood beliefs did you have?--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), June 06, 2000

Answers

Oh lord, I was a terrible hypochondriac. I was convinced that I had polio (pre Jonas Salk days) and would wake up in terror. I had ambliopia and nobody knew it until I was 10 because I assumed everybody had one good eye and one bad eye. I knew there was a snake who lived under my bed. (That fear was so engrained in me that even when I went back as an adult and slept in that bed, I stepped gingerly out of the bed in the morning!) My father read me a story about the man in the moon and when I saw the full moon I was terrified of it, afraid the man was going to get me.

I was a weird child.

-- Bev Sykes (basykes@dcn.davis.ca.us), June 06, 2000.

You know, I could write a book about that question. Not a good book, or an interesting one...but a thick one, nonetheless.

My mom, lord knows why, used to tell us the strangest things, without any hint that they were not true. So my brother and I took them as fact and lived our lives accordingly.

Some examples:

1. Watching a dog urinate will cause pink eye.

2. Having a fever was a sure sign of a growth spurt.

3. If you have a hurt knee/leg, and walk with a limp, you will inevitably cause fist sized knots to form in your inner thigh.

4. A sore neck can be cured by wrapping a pair of underwear taken from the hamper around your neck.

5. Ahem....the kicker.....not properly, uhm...wiping yourself...after doing your business in the potty....causes...of course....the hiccups.

I am way too embarassed to admit how long it took me to realize that these were all lies.

No wonder I am so strange....

Bob

http://www.geocities.com/and_if_I_die/index.html

-- Bob (and_if_I_die@hotmail.com), June 07, 2000.

Oh. Don't forget that dragonflies will sew up your mouth and nose.

-- Bev Sykes (basykes@dcn.davis.ca.us), June 07, 2000.

I was afraid of the headless mannequins in stores like Sears and JC Penneys, I used to think that they followed me home and lived in bedroom closets and corners. My mom dutifully chased them out of the room every night before I went to bed.

-- AJ (joijoijoi@hotmail.com), June 07, 2000.

I guess the frightening one was the belief that if I couldn't sort out and understand SPACE somehow I would get lost there - - - in between. I could not imagine a box or a world that could not have something outside of it, yet my mind would absolutely not accept space in its infinity. This was the big feature of my nightmares and delerium during an illness.

My mind, over the years has decided to accept space as one of the mysteries of existance.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), June 09, 2000.

When I was young, I was told: "The way to keep a bird from flying is to put salt on its tail." I would grab the salt shaker and run into the yard when some birds had landed, hoping the "ground" one by sprinkling a few grains of salt on its tailfeathers.

It was only later that it occurred to me that the saying was figurative and about the pleasures of the dinner table. (By the way, I believe there is a passage in Somerset Maugham's _Of Human Bondage_ where the main character does the same thing as a boy, having taken the statement literally.)

-- Joe Shedlock (joeshedlock@mindspring.com), June 10, 2000.

My uncle use to tell me when I grew up I would be a man... he said thing like when I was little girl...I have yet to miss one damn hormone pill since.

-- Alice (Alice@diarist.net), June 10, 2000.

Oh boy.... I had all sorts of silly beliefs.

• Mountains and hills were giants that had died and were buried.
• If I turned around in a circle three times and looked into a mirror, Bloody Mary would appear and kill me.
• If you made yourself throw up, you'd eventually throw up your organs, like intestines and kidneys.
• If you crossed your eyes they'd stay that way.
• I could kill the devil, if only I could come up with the right poison.
• In order to recite the "sinner's prayer" you had to practice it until you got "it right".
• Couples got pregnant by rubbing against each other (fully clothed).
• The parents I had were not my real parents and that my real parents were kept locked up in a closet somewhere. (I thought this mostly when I was in trouble with my parents!)
• That when I grew up I'd never believe the same things my folks did! (Boy, was I wrong on that one!)

-- Katie (missmermaid@hotmail.com), June 14, 2000.

I know I'm a little late on this conversation, but I've been out of town for a couple of weeks . . . When I was around six (a time before a child begins to sprout hair in the pubic region), my mother convinced me that our synagogue would perform a "pubic hair ceremony" when I reached the age of my Bat Mitzvah. She told me that when I was old enough to start my period, I would be placed naked on a stroller and wheeled through the center aisle of the shul. And, just like what is done when the Torah is walked, the members of our synagogue would kiss my pubic region. Then, at the front, our rabbi would glue hair onto me and - whalah! - I'd grow pubic hair.

Needless to say, this was a pretty freaky thing to a six year old. Although I had my suspicions, my mother had this way of saying things with a completely straight face that made me wonder.

Elan Kesilman
Ramblings of a JAP

-- Elan Kesilman (elan@elanworks.com), June 26, 2000.