Maybe it was a catch-phrase, a legend, a myth....a babysitter....? We all heard lots of stuff while growing up....such as "Don't Do that-You'll go blind"....or "don't make faces...your face could freeze and stay like that forever"...etc-etc...
Is there anything you are influenced by today that you heard or saw as a child? Good, bad or indifferent...it can be something that affected you in a positive way or just down-right messed with your mind and formulated you to be the weirdo that you are....:)

Here's one from my scary psyche:
In a health class....we all had to learn about PLAQUE....bacteria...etc.
They actually made us kids scrape plaque off our teeth and place on glass slides and look under a micro-scope...and GAK! To this day...I have a major spit phobia.
I get freaked if somebody spits in public...enough to almost get beat up coz I find it hard not to verbally assault them.
I would say this influenced me in a good way...as I never shared a tooth-brush..but it's VERY hard for me to eat or drink after ANYBODY....so most times...if somebody says...may I have a bite of that { food} :) I just say...sure...here..you finish it!"

Crime Doesn't Pay ...

Keifer, you make me laugh.

Mom always told me that monkeys stood in and changed the traffic lights, then in the winter, they went back to the zoo.

Well, Maven, what about a sloppy wet kiss then?

A few things as I think of them... I recall my mother once told a story that a policeman with a speed gun (ie camera) got the person in the car next to her. Obviously the story must have been that the person was speeding so ha-ha served them right that they got caught. However at a young age the understanding I came up with was slightly different: I got the impression that the policeman was aiming at my mother but missed and got the person in the next lane with the speed gun, which was (obviously) a device which fired a suction cup attached to a rope and allowed the policeman to reel in the offending vehichle and punish the driver (not sure how I got the idea that said policeman would prevet himself from being dragged off after the car, I guess I didn't think that far ahead). Anyway this is what I thought "speed guns" were for many years afterward.

Another time my father was cutting down a large tree and to prevent it from falling in the wrong direction he used to throw a rock attached to a stone into the brnches and then get someone (in this instance my mother) to pull on the rope so that the tree would fall the right way. Well this time (probably the last time he used this particular method) the rope was not sufficiently wound around the branch, it came loose and the rock came down and hit her in the head, causing not-very-serious injury (but probably some serious chastising for my father later). A few days later I recorded this incident in my school journal, but being young I didn't really go into much detail and it ended up reading that my father pretty much tricked my mother into pulling on a rope which resulted in her being struck in the head by a rock. I recall my mother was horrified to read this many years later when going through some of my old school stuff and imagining the teachers reaction when she read it...

Finally, I also beleived, when I was younger, that my parents were both burglars and that they used to go out and rob the houses of our neighbors when I was asleep. Don't ask where I got that one from... I think I just had an over active imagination...

hahaha! Hmmmm, Samatar...could your parents have been burglars? :)

Ok....here are a couple more things...
SHRIMP: I can almost NOT eat them at all......
A relative told me once that they look like pink, peeled, fleshy, crunchy toes. GAK!
Same relative { disowned} also gave me a pea phobia....and I can barely eat green peas.
She said that the green peas look just like the green innards of the roly poly bugs we used to squish, and to this day, if the peas are squished, I cannot eat them...and in fact...can barely eat them at all....

I still dont eat seeds in fruit incase a tree grows out of my head and kills me.

hahaha I don't swallow watermelon seeds coz I might get pregnant...

Thought of another one:
As a kid...we used to have to travel once a year to a heart specialist I had to go to...{ they never did find a heart in there!}.....and anyway....once my Father went along....and when we went thru Birmingham, Ala...we saw this huge VULCAN statue...on Iron Mountain. My Father told me it was gonna run down off that mountain and get me...and I hid down on the floorboards of the station wagon every year when we had to go thru there. To this day, I have nightmares about giants and scary statues....

Grandma used to warn me about rocking an empty rocking chair..supposedly that meant somebody died or something like that..but to this day I always stop a chair from rocking after I get out of it!!

Oookk. So I may still be a kid in ya'lls eyes... But my mom once told me that when i was really little (like 2 or 3) And i finally got my "big girl" bed, that i would come out after she put me to bed and tell her "mommy, the little boy outside my window wants to come in an play" (my bedroom widow faces the front porch) My mom would go in to my room and look around, she'd go out onto the porch and look around...no little boy. Mom said she told me to never let the little boy in. She said i told her about the little boy for months before i stopped... To this day, i cannot look out a window if its dark. I have 2 different sets of curtains over my window...even though my room is on the second story of the house now... Dark windows are my enemy...Im always afraid im going to see someone staring back at me if i look out a dark window...*shivers*

Darling Cat...It was probably ANDREW!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha

That wouldnt surprise me! lmao!

My Gran always said my teeth would fall out if I kissed the girls!....I wear dentures now?

If you left the house & came back right away cuz you forgot something, you had to sit down a minute or two before you could leave again! Otherwise you would probably be in some horrible accident since your timing was all off! lol

As a small child I remember going to the drive-in with my parents and brother. Since I could not see out the windows I knew we were close to the drive-in when the car starting jumping up and down with excitement. I thought the car was happy and loved the drive-in when in reality it was a rutted road we were traveling on.

LOL..that's so cute Carrie..the car was happy you were going to the drive in!! The things kids say huh?? LOL

As a child, I remember being on an automobile trip with my family. I was sitting in the very back of our Station Wagon and I bit into a banana, and there was a worm in it! I was unable to eat bananas' until I was well into young adulthood.

As a child, I remember being on an automobile trip with my family. I was sitting in the very back of our Station Wagon and I bit into a banana, and there was a worm in it! I was unable to eat bananas' until I was well into young adulthood.

What? I couldn't think of anything.

Terri?

Pure genius, this thread ... as I see it ... has opened up the 'inner Les' in the people that have posted.

Sam? Cat? ... *sheds a tear* ... you done me proud.

My mom and dad told us kids that if we didn't wash our ears properly we would grow potatoes there. To this day ... I go "Silkwood" in washing that area, lol.

So when do you pick the potatoes?

If you look into your monitor...and say CAEDES 3 times....your HOUSE CHORES will disappear!

Your are absolutely right Terri....it works....wow, what a rush!

MAURICE SENDAK's "Where the Wild Things Are"

This book influenced me in a major way. I read it when I was a kid and misinterpreted it as children will do....and fell into this belief that I could befriend all wild animals. No matter how scary...I could win them over if I was nice and loved them all.....

Yeah? Well go hug a Grizzly.

I've met scarier people....

Dont swallow gum! You'll have to have your appendix taken out!

Swallow this....it's great for your hair....

well..at least it wont hurt your appendix anyhow..

What does the front page of a book have to do with any of this?

I've seen some books that have a lot to do with it..

Uhm ... Terri? Lol ... naughty girl. Com'ere and get your spanking. ;o)

As kids, we were told that our parents could tell if we were lying by looking at our tongues. Which, inevitably during those inquisitions such as but not limited to, 'who put the cat in the dryer?' (yes, true story) ... lead to us covering our mouths for fear we would be found out.

This is also a known reflexive action on the part of someone trying to 'mask' their words or lies. Instinctively, on some level ... 'their' hands, fingers move up to their mouth area in an effort to further disguise the truth.

Hmm? Ohhh, me? No, no ... I am telling the truth, just thought I felt something was stuck between my teeth, that's all. What? Right. The mask I am wearing? ... well, hey now ... you caught me on that. :oP

I don't know if there is any one specific thing...however...my mom, when angry, would go through roll call (inevitably causing 3 doors to slam shut in fear)...anyway, I find that I have done that as well...not knowing who I'm pissed at, so it's "Rob, Robbie, Rachel, Rob, Rachel, Robbie--dammit you KNOW who YOU are..."

"Well, son ... if you eat your crusts on your sandwiches ... it'll put hair on your chest."

*eyes mom and sister eating their crusts* o_O

Yeah, that one doesn't fly to well with the girls.. the usual grumpy comback is "I don't want hair on my chest!"

Then there is the one when parents tell you to put your 'Tooth' under the pillow for the 'Tooth Fairy'...and they leave some money for you!..........I still wonder how that works?

I was always told boys have cooties......

Well when i first met my friend richard in year 7, i have become even crazier than you all! (includes you Keith) i don't think anyone here has called santa samtey claus? and plus the...uhh...rather randomnessique of me was not only discovered by me, but found, buried, dug up, mailed to myself and lent to myself on several occasions. There, happy? my life story is complete.

And to add to the random things i have a hardcore rock symphony with all the usual orchestra gear and a few guitars and drums... :D?

One in every 3 of your friends accounts for 1/3 of your friends

Terri ?...excuse my ignoramus musings!....but what the hell is a 'Cootie'!...never heard this one afore!.....

germs, fleas, things that crawl, ..... of course, "T" grew up in the south .. so, who knows what they are down there, but they prolly drive a pickup truck with a gun rack

You can't go swimming after you ate for at least one hour. Brush your teeth after each meal. Always be kind and there are angels on earth that are watching you.

Oh! Thanks Keith....we know them as 'Nits' & Nasty Bug'as!...and they use JCB's to dig out yer scalp too!

Dont drink coffee when your young or it will stunt your growth.

Dont smoke if your pregnant or the baby will be born with a little "butt" on the end.
(ok, that last was a bad joke told to me when I was little but I still believed it :P )

Terri...boys...DO have cooties!

pssst...want some 'cooties', girlie? :P

We gots cooties frum gurls.

We did!