What Myths were we told when we were Children......

[tampatalon]

The BOOOOGY man.....oh yeah.....

He was the one who made all those noises you heard when you couldn't get to sleep, as well as the one who hid outside ready to grab you if you if you went outside at night.....

Thats him! And we also had a local legend. He was called the "green man". The green man, it was
rumored was to have climbed aloft a high-tension wire tower and touched the electric lines which
caused him to turn green. He was rumored to walk about the local roads during the early evening
hours. We would beg our parents to take us for a car ride to see if we could spot the green man.

TampaTalon^">

[MaineWriter]

And...  I think I'm realizing that I was quite a superstitious child...  I believed that when we drove past a cemetery I needed to hold my breath the whole time we were passing it and I couldn't let that breath out until we came to a white house.  Again, I have no idea where I came up with that idea.  And, I'm also not exactly sure what I thought would happen if I didn't follow this ritual when going past cemeteries.  I think it may have been something about worrying that ghosts from the cemetery might follow the car.  Again, I think I must have been very superstitious... with an over active imagination.

I remember holding my breath as we drove past cemeteries, but didn't have the "white house" at the end. So it wasn't entirely your imagination, Amanda! We also played a game, "cemetery swats." Everytime you drove past a cemetery, the first person to see it got to swat another person. Usually this involved me swatting my (younger) sister. She got swatted for years before she even understood what the game was!

L

[tampatalon]

I remember holding my breath as we drove past cemeteries, but didn't have the "white house" at the end. So it wasn't entirely your imagination, Amanda! We also played a game, "cemetery swats." Everytime you drove past a cemetery, the first person to see it got to swat another person. Usually this involved me swatting my (younger) sister. She got swatted for years before she even understood what the game was!

L

This is one myth I think I was not told for a practical reason. We lived next to a cemetary 

TampaTalon^">

[MaineWriter]

This isn't something I was told, but something I told my kids...

I always said that triscuits (the crackers) were made by ancient tribes of triscuit weavers in the dark jungles of South America. Since both of my children could easily gobble up a box of triscuits in one sitting, I told them this to stress that triscuits were rare and should be savored, not eaten willy-nilly all at once. Over the years, our descriptions of the ancient tribes of triscuit weavers have gotten more and more elaborate. It is a fun family joke.

We were at my parent's house for dinner last week and my mother put out cheese and triscuits. I made some comment about the ancient tribes and my mom had no idea what I was talking about (and asked me if it was true, no less!!). That's when I realized it was something I had made up and was not passing on from my childhood.

L

[louisev]

The myth we all believed in childhood was that there were millions of children starving in Biafra, and that kids who weren't eating their vegetables were somehow required to donate them to the kids in Biafra, who only got a real boost of nutrition after Halloween when all the UNICEF trick or treat money went to buy them non fat dry milk and rice.

"Trick or treat for UNICEF!"

[Katie77]

Love your story about the triskets, Leslie, and the reason for it......it does show how parents can use their own imaginations for a cause......

The one I always used for my kids......was if we saw a train or truck carrying cattle  or sheep......when my kids asked me where they were going....I would say that they were being taken out to a country property where they could laze around all day and eat plenty of grass and have a happy life.....
I could never bring myself to tell them they were on the way to the abatoir (slaughter yards).....

Even as my kids got older, and  knew where they really were going, they would still ask me, "where are those cows going, Mum"...and I would still tell them the same old story.

I guess it made them feel good, just as it made me feel....

[jstephens9]

This relates to the cemetary idea. You would get points for every herd of cows you passed on your side of the car while riding in the car. However, if you went past a cemetary you lost all your points if they were on your side of the car. I have no idea what a cemetary had to do with a cow, but I didn't question it at the time.

[Katie77]

My friend told me this one the other day.....

Apparently her little son was being naughty, so she got some cotton wool and dropped a few pieces of it near the window..........

Then she told her son, it was probably off Santa's beard while he was watching him being naughty through the window........

[tampatalon]

My friend told me this one the other day.....

Apparently her little son was being naughty, so she got some cotton wool and dropped a few pieces of it near the window..........

Then she told her son, it was probably off Santa's beard while he was watching him being naughty through the window........

I would have been mortified!   LOL

TampaTalon^">

[Katie77]

I would have be mortified!   LOL

TampaTalon^">

hahhaa...he wasn't being that kind of "naughty", Steve.......