As a child I use to think...

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!!!

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 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.

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

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

That the people on television could see me and that if you stuck the electricity bill on a boarded up shop when no one was looking, you would not have to pay it. (Hence stick no bills on the boards).

Used to think I would have to become a nun and not be able to go to the cinema! Until I realised I would have a vocation! The rose petals brings back memories too!

It seems most of us did the rose petal thing.

I remember being afraid to go to sleep after my beloved Nanna died. I was told she drifted off in her sleep and I had vision of her rising from her bed like a balloon and floating off to Heaven. Now I know she probably had cancer.

My Mum told my two DDs that if you had a wart and it bled you would bleed to death. When the eldest fell and her wart started bleeding the youngest came running in saying she was bleeding to death. I told my Mum no more old wives tales please.

My Mum also told my sister and I that you couldn't wash your hair if you were having a period. God knows why. I did wash mine though.

Witches under the bed and that if I went up the stairs with my fingers opened wide the witches would chase me. If you swallowed a pip it gave you appendicitis and swallowing chewing would 'gum' up your insides. That my friend and I could fly like Mary Poppins if we stood on the cliff top in a gale!!

If I went near the river, a bogey man would get me. Also washing hair whilst having a period, or going out with wet hair, would give me pneumonia. There were also spiders climbing up the wallpaper in the bedroom, which turned out to be roses in the daytime.

I was telling my husband about these earlier today and he said he used to think his mum worked in a park as she worked park (t) time

As a child, I convinced myself a crocodile lived under my bed. I used to hurl myself onto my chest of drawers near the door, then jump onto my bed. One evening my mother caught me. .

In the age of propped aircraft, hearing the drone of engines; whilst in the back garden, I used to - imagine-- believe it was a war plane, getting ready to dive and strafe me.

At that time I never remembered I was born after WW11 had finished.

Then we were living in Melbourne, not the UK.

I thought that girls had curly hair and boys had straight hair.
I had straight hair and hated it.

The not washing your hair when you had a period , was quite well known , I
wonder what the reason was supposed to be ?

I'm prepared for the total ridicule in admitting that I still don't understand how jumping up and down in a falling lift won't save your life if you time it right.

Sorry ...

We had a teacher at school, who was always telling us to pronounce words properly, especially when singing, as she always wondered why it was the Salvation Army wanted a Fig Tree, when they were really singing Victory.