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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Childhood Credulity
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
At the risk of this turning into an urban legends thread(NTTAWWT), my Grade 5 teacher told us that a certain McRestaurant put worms in their hamburgers. Later that week, upon visiting said establishment, a family member noted that there seemed to be fewer people than usual, and I opined this was possibly because of the worm reports.
That same teacher also told us that female shoplfiters would sometimes pretend to be pregnant, in order to stash stolen goods under their shirts. For many years, I thought about this whenever I saw pregnant women in department stores.
This teacher pretty much used any class as an excuse for telling long-winded, BS stories, often of a self-aggrandizing nature, to the students. Well, except for math, which in Grade 5 consisted of lessons slightly above the level of basic arithmetic. Pretty sweet gig, overall.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
That same teacher also told us that female shoplfiters would sometimes pretend to be pregnant, in order to stash stolen goods under their shirts.
It has to be said that during the war my aunt smuggled curtain fabric from the Irish Republic to the North with the assistance of her old maternity dress. My mother, meanwhile, had nylons pinned by the toes hanging down inside the lining of her coat. And everybody had tea, butter, sugar etc tucked into the legs of their directoire knickers.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I managed to convince my brother who is 2 yeas older than me, that he was adopted. I said that if he asked mum she would just lie to him. We were both in our 50s when he told mum that he had believed it for some years. She was horrified.
Huia, evil genius ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
[ 11. January 2016, 17:45: Message edited by: Huia ]
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
My daughter assured her little brother that vegetables were poisonous.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by MSHB:
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I believed that women could not have babies until they were married -- that God did something special to them upon marriage to make it possible.
I remember as a child wondering: how did a woman's body know that the woman was married?
It just didn't make sense to me. As far as I could see, babies just spontaneously started happening after a woman got married, and the biology of how her change in legal status triggered a change in fertility simply eluded me.
Along similar lines I remember puzzling about the role of the father. In my class at school I had a mixed race friend, and my mother speculated that possibly she had a 'white mummy and a black daddy' ... I couldn't for the life of me see how the colour of the daddy's skin could make any difference - I imagined the daddy having to be present at the moment of birth, and exposure to his presence would somehow have an immediate effect on the baby's skin, darkening the skin tone to be more like himself.
And I must have caused a nightmare for my parents aged about 7 when I told them about another friend at school who's older sister had just had a baby (I can even recall the baby's name, it was Tara, although I can't remember my friend's name) and she wasn't married, in fact she seems to have been a single parent (in the mid sixties this was rather rarer than it would be today I suppose). I assured my mother that this child just had a mummy, not a daddy. My mother explained gently that everyone had a daddy. But that just confused me... I remember asking her 'well isn't it allowed then, to have a baby if there isn't a daddy?' - I don't recall getting a satisfactory answer to this at the time - my parents couldn't have been very keen to share the facts of life with me at that stage!
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
My daughter assured her little brother that vegetables were poisonous.
I used to tell my kids that the doctors had diagnosed a rare condition which prevented my eating pumpkin, much as I would have loved to, but that it was important that they ate it because it was good for them.
They didn't believe me.
My father used to refer to his beer as "Dad's medicine".
I didn't believe him.
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
I managed to convince my brother who is 2 yeas older than me, that he was adopted. I said that if he asked mum she would just lie to him. We were both in our 50s when he told mum that he had believed it for some years. She was horrified.
Huia, evil genius
My sister convinced me that she had a mouse army living in the heating ducts and that if I didn't give her my desserts they would kill me at night by eating me alive starting with my face, and also crawl up my chimney. So I stacked books on the floor vents so they couldn't invade, cooled the room down so much such that the plumbing froze and burst (it's what happens when heat is off at -40°C/F on the prairies). The behaviour of my parents in such situations generally included a belt. More than once. Until repaired. Not close at all to my sister am I. Though she apologised 50 years later.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I thought that, whenever there was a free gift, special offer or discount, in a shop, it was because the people who worked there were being really kind.
Just couldn't understand why my father let out a cynical laugh...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
And everybody had tea, butter, sugar etc tucked into the legs of their directoire knickers.
Didn't the butter melt?
It was alledgedly one of the devices of the Customs to have the heating turned up in railway carriages as they neared the Border...
[ 12. January 2016, 11:39: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Have I mentioned the meteorites targeting a South Coast resort before?
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
I've heard of "friendly bombs" falling on Slough, but never of "friendly meteorites" falling on Bognor Regis. Or Hastings.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Ah, then I'll risk the story - I was told by local children that thunderbolts could be found in the Warren, east of Folkestone, in large quantities. There has been a confusion between thunderbolts and meteorites (irons, I suppose). (There was a tale, later, that a haystack in Kent had been ignited by lightning, and that afterwards the farmer found a thunderbolt in the debris. No idea what he found - there was no picture.)
I spent one evening gazing out of my bedroom window, which looked towards the Warren, hoping to see some land. Which, of course, I didn't. So I decided I had been misinformed. Which, of course, I had. Though not in the way I thought.
It turned out, much later, that there was another confusion between "thunderbolts" and something else. The Chalk contains nodules of either pyrite or marcasite - there is argument about this, but both are iron sulphide - heavy and iron rich balls with an attractive heft. (The knobbly ones have struck me as rather like a natural version of the carved soapstone balls found in and around Orkney.) And there's lots of the things around the Warren.
But I remember that evening, staring for what seemed like ages, hoping to see a meteorite land!
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Actually, I have seen one, shooting north over the A2 towards Erith, it appeared. In fact, it went on over the North Sea and landed in Greenland - though it has not, to date, been found. But it looked very low and as if it was about to land nearby!
I have to own up that it was the connection between this and Chelyabinsk that has led to my buying a dashcam, and not anything to do with driving.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I saw this on a school trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York many, many years ago. I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I lay awake certain that I was going to be hit by one.
That wasn't a case of childhood credulity (just childhood terror!), but the other thing that caused many scary, sleepless nights was when someone in my class said the earth was going to crash into the sun. I was expecting it to happen in the immediate future, probably that very night.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
(I may have related this story elsewhere on the Ship. I have a vague memory of posting it somewhere.)
A story about childhood credulity, but not my own. Though I don't exactly come off looking too good...
When I was around nine or so, going through that stage where you're contemptuous of younger children for being credulous and liking "babyish" things, I came across a little event at the downtown library's theatre room, in which a young woman was entertaining a bunch of kids by impersonating a spider. She was speaking to the kids with her head throuh a wooden board, with the spider's body painted around her head.
Well, I wasn't going to let this type of infantile stupidity stand unchallenged, believe you me. So I sauntered into the theatre during the Q & A session, and after pointing out that there are many different types of spiders, asked her what type of spider she was. She replied, in the friendliest tone possible, "Well, I'm any type of spider you want me to be."
"That makes a lot of sense!" huffed I, and stormed out.
I can tell you I felt VERY grown-up after that.
[ 13. January 2016, 04:49: Message edited by: Stetson ]
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
There has been a confusion between thunderbolts and meteorites (irons, I suppose).
I thought referring to meteoric iron as 'thunderbolt iron' was fairly traditional? In a folkloric sort of way.
I'm sure I've read that in an authentic peer-reviewed fantasy novel anyway.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Someone in my class said the earth was going to crash into the sun. I was expecting it to happen in the immediate future, probably that very night.
Yes. I had a similar fear that the sun would swell up into a red giant and engulf us.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
There has been a confusion between thunderbolts and meteorites (irons, I suppose).
I thought referring to meteoric iron as 'thunderbolt iron' was fairly traditional? In a folkloric sort of way.
I'm sure I've read that in an authentic peer-reviewed fantasy novel anyway.
Yes, but it's still confusion, even if folkloric. (They peer review fantasy novels? Really?)
I did wonder about that farmer (as an adult) - if it should happen that a meteorite should arrive during a thunderstorm, I would imagine that it is not impossible, perhaps even likely, that lightning should follow its path down.
[ 13. January 2016, 09:33: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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The Intrepid Mrs S
Shipmate
# 17002
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Posted
When my children were Very Young, I convinced them that our telly could only get BBC 1 and 2! It was magic - not only did I avoid 'The A Team' and other such trash, No Christmas Toy Adverts! ![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
That was 30 years ago at least, I'm sure it would never work now, sadly.
Mrs. S, always a good liar ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
(They peer review fantasy novels? Really?)
Sorry, I was trying to be humorously self-deprecating about the weakness of my sources.
That said, I once saw a TEFL course which advertised 'peer-reviewed exercises' as a positive feature. What it meant was students marking each other's work instead of the teacher. By the same logic, a book by (say) Jasper Fforde with an endorsement by Terry Pratchett on the back has also been peer-reviewed.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
(They peer review fantasy novels? Really?)
Sorry, I was trying to be humorously self-deprecating about the weakness of my sources.
That said, I once saw a TEFL course which advertised 'peer-reviewed exercises' as a positive feature. What it meant was students marking each other's work instead of the teacher. By the same logic, a book by (say) Jasper Fforde with an endorsement by Terry Pratchett on the back has also been peer-reviewed.
Also sorry. Obviously needed an appropriate emoticon, perhaps
![[Biased]](wink.gif) to convey use of arched tone of voice.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Just to clarify your digressions, there are peer-reviewed awards in the genre. The Nebula Awards are managed by the Science-Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America -- the membership votes on the awards every year. The World Fantasy Awards are a juried award, and in theory the jury is fantasy writers. The other major award, the Hugo, is voted on by the membership of the World Science Fiction Convention every year, so they are not exactly peers, just rabid readers.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
When my children were Very Young, I convinced them that our telly could only get BBC 1 and 2 ...
BBC2? They didn't know they were living! When I was Very Young, we could only get BBC1 and ITV.
Shoe-box on t'M1, anybody? ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
Many (many!) years ago, the car toll on the Golden Gate Bridge was 25 cents. In those days, there were lanes fitted with a hopper -- the driver would chuck a quarter into the hopper on the way through.
Of course, somebody (I don´t think it was me!) asked what would happen if we tried to go through without tossing in the quarter. My dad answered that there was a little man equipped with a machine gun, who would rise from the hopper and open fire.
I never believed him (never bought into Santa Claus either), but I´ve thought since that that is a stupid sort of tale to tell children. It made enough of an impression on me that I haven´t ever forgotten it.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
When I was Very Young, we could only get BBC1 and ITV.
When I was very young, it wasn't even called BBC1 as there was no BBC2. It was either the BBC or "the other side".
Does anyone else remember the BBC2 kangaroo?
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
When I was young it was the Home Service, the Light or the Third.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I convinced my younger brother that "sibling" was a rude word. I could insult him by calling him a sibling, without attracting the wrath of my parents.
It must be hereditary. My son told his little sister that she was a glottal stop. Not knowing what a glottalstop was, she accepted his assertion that she was one. He then got me to confirm that I didn't like glottal stops. Cue much weeping and wailing from little sister.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif) Have you seen the novel where one kid scares another by calling him a "transubstantiationalist?" He tells him it's a hoodoo word...
I confess that when my toddler came home from preschool calling everyone "stupid," I took him aside and with a very serious face said, "You're not pronouncing that right. Say it this way: 'spaghetti'."
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Here's a conversation I recall from the early 80s, with an elementary-age girl who was a friend of my sister's, and had been to an Ozzy Osbourne concert shortly before. This was the era when Ozzy was getting alot of mileage out of his over-the-top stage antics.
ME: So, did Ozzy do anything really crazy on stage?
GIRL: Yeah, he hung a dwarf.
ME: Really?
GIRL: Yeah.
ME: You mean, it was a guy dressed up as a dwarf, and he pretended to hang him, right?
GIRL: No, no. He really hung a dwarf.
Suffice to say, if you're young enough to think that dwarfs are real and a rock musician could murder one with impunity in front of thousands of people, you're probably too young to go to a rock concert.
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
When I was a child in the 1930s, we had a state-of-the-art radio which had been given to my parents as a wedding gift. It was an Atwater Kent which stood about four feet high. It was mostly made of wood, with fabric over the place where the speaker was.
In time, a hole developed in the fabric. My brothers and I were convinced that there were real people inside the radio, and we used to push peanuts through the hole to feed 'the man in the radio'.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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crunt
Shipmate
# 1321
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I confess that when my toddler came home from preschool calling everyone "stupid," I took him aside and with a very serious face said, "You're not pronouncing that right. Say it this way: 'spaghetti'."
Haha - reminds me of the time (years ago) when the brother in charge of taking one of the toddlers to pre-school on the bus stopped her short when she sang a tune from one of our household's favourite LPs at the time The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
"Touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch me
I wanna be d-i-rty!"
She belted out on the bus
"Thirty" he sneered, "I wanna be thirty"
It shut her up immediately.
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QUIZ: Bible
QUIZ: world religions
LTL Discussion
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Posts: 269 | From: Up country in the middle of Malaysia | Registered: Sep 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
When i was about 7 my dad told me that in Ireland HP Sauce (which is genuinely named after the Houses of Parliament) was called TD Sauce (named after The Dail). I sort of believed him for quite a long time.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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