As a child I use to think...

If you planted a feather it would grow into a hen!

I used to believe that if you had pins and needles in your leg and you walked about on it your leg would break.

I believed in fairies and that my toys came alive at night. A generation later I used to cover up my daughters' dolls on cold nights.

I must have watched too many Hammer House of Horror ( I was an only child and left on a Friday evening as mum and dad went out - Was around 12/13 - was that bad ? )
Always wore a crucifix in the bath to protect me from vampires
Would flush the loo and rush downstairs because a monster might pop out and get me.

That the marrow in my backbone would melt if I sat in front of the fire! as my Mum told me it would, and I'd catch my death of cold if i went out with wet hair,

I also believed that soaking rose petals would produce beautiful perfume and always thought my Grandma was sticking a hatpin through her head and couldn't understand how it didn't hurt!!! My Grandad was a great one for telling funny stories/jokes and I was convinced he'd made up this rhyme...
'One day I saw a liitle worm a wriggling on his belly,
Would he like to come inside and see what's on the telly'!

I proudly told everyone he'd made it up. It wasn't until I was in my fifties and came across it in a book written by Spike Milligan!!!

I thought the Flanagan & Allen song was "Underneath the Archers" (as in an everyday story of country folk.....)

I also believed that if I went out with wet hair I'd get pneumonia; not sure how I got round this during our annual week's summer holiday at Littlehampton when I'd be in the sea all day, quite often in the rain.

My Nan was Queen of the Fairies, which I didn't quite believe although I was sure she was well acquainted and on excellent terms with them. When I complained about the banging in my ears when I tried to go to sleep at night (my heartbeat, as it happens) she told me it was the fairies marching under my pillow. How I used to wish they'd stop!

And those horrors under the bed could find you in the dark if you cried out for mummy, so you had to stay schtum. Nobody told me that, so the paranoia was all my own!

This thread is full of giggles!

I used to believe my Dad went to church every Friday night and that's why he didn't come with us on Sundays. It was years before I twigged he was going to the pub!

I used to believe tea would be delicious because all grownups drank it. What a disappointment! Coffee too.

Still giggling at Father Christmas living in Bristol!

I had swallowed both chewing gum and a tiny bit of torn balloon and knew that both would swell in my tum. I was very concerned what would happen when I grew up and if I had a baby how the Doctors would cut through the chewing gum/balloon in my tum!

I was told that babies came from heaven so imagined they were lowered down from the clouds in baskets with pink or blue ribbons. Often looked up to see if it was happening and was disappointed never to spot one being hauled down.
Also had a fear of angels after hearing that the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in a blaze of heavenly night. I didn't want that scary thing to happen to me so if I ever had to get up and use the chamber pot at night in grandma's house (she had an outside toilet ) I would first of all pray very hard to God not to send an angel to me while I was sitting on the potty.

Thought the only thing you needed to be a teacher was to know how to make ticks and crosses!

My parents moved about a lot so I couldn't have a pet. When I was six I had a pretend cat. I used to call it in by rattling a saucer on the back doorstep of the house where we were living. My mum (who wasn't into child psychology) said I would be put into a home for disturbed children.

When I was even younger I was terrified of a woman who lived in a lane at the back of a house we were living in. She reminded me of a fox and I would run away when I saw her coming.

She was upset by this and tried to befriend me by giving me a pear drop which stuck in my throat and I nearly chocked. It didn't help matters.

If I started choking on something,coughing and spluttering,my gran would say "Oops,that went down the wrong way!"I thought there were two "tubes" at the back of my throat-one for food and one for drink-and that sometimes things went down the wrong one!

I thought women were made pregnant in the night when she and husband were asleep. My reason for this was the films in which the hwroine fainted ( usually) and both parents were amazed to be told she was pregnant. I thought they were bound to remember if they had done that rude thing id been told about so it must havw been when they were asleep! I suppose i thought sex always led to pregnancy and no one would wanr to do it otherwise!
Also there was axwitch that lived in a dark corner pn the landing which i had tonpass on the way to my bedroom. It was not there in the daytime!

That if I came to the edge of the world I would fall off. That really frightened me.
That women over 30 couldn't have long hair but had to have short, permed hair. Thankfully I still have my long, straight hair at twice that age.

I used to re-enact all the Haley Mills films and wanted to be an actress too I became a teacher (similar!)

My grandad invented 'Fairy Lightfoot' - a beautiful princess fairy that lived in his lampshade in the lounge. I totally believed this for years ?

I used to think that my mother was more beautiful than any film star, and that she had a wonderful singing voice.

I used to think that it was only me who couldn't understand what Bill and Ben were saying, and that when I was older, I would understand.

Best of all I believed I could fly and to prove it, jumped off the top step of the stairs to practise my skill. Fortunately, no harm was done, except to demonstrate that of course I couldn't really fly and that it hurt when I came to land in the hallway.

Oh and I used to think anyone over 30 was old....

I shared the belief about bogeymen under the bed, I always lay on the bed and looked underneath before putting my feet down and even now, sometimes if I'm spooked by creaks upstairs at night, I go and fearfully look around upstairs and under the beds! also the buttercups and butter one.

We had a cupboard opposite the toilet at the top of the stairs and someone said a wolf lived in it - how we raced downstairs after flushing the loo at night! but somehow were never scared during the day ...

We yearned for a dog and on Saturdays my father would go out at lunchtime and have a couple of pints at a nearby working men's club. Mum didn't want to tell us he'd gone for a drink, so she said he'd gone to see a man about a dog. My sisters and I always gathered at the window expecting to see him coming home with a dog, only to be bitterly disappointed, until, one day they took pitty on us and did go to Battersea and get one!

That there were monsters in the dark, but if you left your bedroom door open just a little they couldn't get in (I still do this!)

That there really were fairies and if you lay very still on the ground, covered in torn up grass then you may see one.

My sister used to tell me that an elastoplast would ' grow into your skin' , I hated getting them pulled off even when they were grubby .
There's a building in my town that has tall bollards outside , I used to think that they were black daleks - I still glance at them in fear .
My Mum used to say she was going to put me in the local Children's Home , I can't walk on that side of the street even now , even though it's been converted into luxury flats !
Plus , 'sitting on a wall will give you piles ' - that one might have been true !!

Thank you all for dispelling the myth of the lift - was still under that illusion.

Bogyman under the bed - big yes. Thought the end of a prayer was 'Our Men' and didn't really know who they were.

And as for the witches that lived in the fir tree in the garden. My mother eventually sorted that one out by telephoning them (very worried that the telephone operater would think she was mad as I didn't see that she had her finger on the bar) and inviting them to tea. We laid the table for six, gave them all cups of tea and Kraft Dairylea, oh it was such fun and they were so sociable. Never saw them again, didn't even write a thank you note.

I really thought that my mother believed anything I told her if I looked her straight in the eyes.

Not so much beliefs as wonderings. Why should the green hill have had a city wall? How could my father be in heaven when I knew he was at home? Very puzzling.