Weird and Wonderful Ideas

[Maharg67]

Did you get told weird and wonderful stories, as a young child, by older children or adults that you either believed in or were doubtful about.

 

Two I remember were:

 

The black light bulb: instead of filling a room with darkness, the bulb fills it with darkness. I thought this would be cool to get away from people one did not like or escaping from school.

 

Areas of reversed gravity; places on the world where gravity went 'up instead of down'. I wondered why there were rockets sending astronauts to space if all they needed to do was catch a ride up where gravity went up instead of down.

 

Did anybody else get such stories and what were they?

[Ironman5000]

My friend once bust his toe open in football so I told him the best way to heal foot-related injuries was to dowse it directly with a lot of vinegar...he did, and his reaction will keep me laughing forever :devil:

http://i.imgur.com/vuxpC.gif

Edited November 23, 2012 by Ironman5000

[Keanumoreira]

My friend once bust his toe open in football so I told him the best way to heal foot-related injuries was to dowse it directly with a lot of vinegar...he did, and his reaction will keep me laughing forever :devil:

http://i.imgur.com/vuxpC.gif

 

LOL. That is so maniacal and cunning. ;D

[tredmillion]

one of my friends believed this for many years.

 

basically he didnt know what a haggis was, so knowing its something scottish people eat he asked his dad (part scottish) to which his dad replies, son a haggis is a small bird that lives high up on the mountainside, and it has done for many 100's of years, in fact it has lived there for so long one of its legs grows longer than the other, so that it can stand up on the steep mountain top without falling over. his father than went on to tell him that the only way to catch a haggis is to make it run the wrong way around the mountain so that it would lose its grip and fall over......my mate was about 13 or 14 when we told him the truth xD

[Vindekarr]

I've heard all sorts of idiotic folk tales about Australia, one day I got a little bit of a meanstreak and decided to live one out with an American friend of mine. They say that Australia has Drop-Bears, savage tree dwelling predators that drop atop your head and affix themselves to your face. I told her that dropbears can only be repelled with vegemite, and was eventually able to con her into spreading vegemite through her hair, and carrying a spork on a bushwalk. It was truly hilarious. Edited November 23, 2012 by Vindekarr

[Maharg67]

I soldier told me, as a young teenager, that his Self Loading Rifle (FN-FAL) was called that because it constantly reloaded itself, magically like. I had my doubts but confirmed it with others to make sure.

 

I believed that cheque accounts, they were the norm when I was a child, were magical. To get money you only had to fill out a cheque which was like magically making money; it great disappointed me when I learned that one had to have money in the cheque account first or have an official overdraft limit.

[Vindekarr]

Machines used to be magical to me. I have always had a facination with engineering of all sorts, but in the early years I just didn't get it. Helicopters, turbochargers, and rockets especially. These machines, they don't follow let alone exploit, the laws of physics, they're more about bashing them into submission-something I at the time just couldn't comprehend. Turbochargers... little magic cylenders that made a terrificly loud sound and could double an internal conmbustion engine's power, helicopters, massive 5+ ton objects with upside down ceiling fans atop them, that somehow didn't fly apart, let alone fly through the air. Rockets, diminunitive clusters of spheres, that could through 500 ton projectiles beyond the edge of our solar system.

 

It was easy to believe in that magic too, growing up when I did, considering how extreme some of the engineering experiments of that era were. Carbon fibre for example, it's a common thing nowadays, but when I was a kid, it was practically as alien as life on mars; nobody really knew what it could do. There were none of the ethical, the safety, the environmental laws; auto engineering went especially beserk; we're yet to come anywhere near matching the power of engines build over 30 years ago; even today a Formula One produces less than half the power of a mid '80s equivalent, despite having a larger, more advanced engine. It was an amazing era.

[Dazaster]

I moved to South Africa as a little boy and, a few years later aged about 10 came back to England for a holiday. Of course my cousins all wanted to know if it was true that lions and tigers roamed around free. I told them they were stupid because the only tigers in Africa are in zoo's, but yes lions and elephants and stuff wander down the streets. I could tell by their large goggling eyes that they believed me, lol.<br><br>P.S.<br>Also when I was very little I didn't know how cars work, one day while on the motorway I asked my dad about it and he said the car just did what he wanted by thinking about it, but, if I asked the car(whose name was Polly by the way) nicely, it would go faster. So I did and he put his foot down a little. I kept asking until well past the speed limit, then my dad said that Polly had told him she was tired now and slowed down. I was so excited that I could talk to the car and it responded. What an idiot. Edited November 23, 2012 by Dazaster

[JimboUK]

I was told by my granddad that the legs on sheep in Wales were longer on one side so they could stand on hills and remain upright.

[Dan3345]

I used to think since Australia was "upside down" that cars must drive upside down. Then I watched an episode of Topgear where the British team raced the Australian team except they forced the Australian team to drive their cars upside down, thus validating my idea. :teehee: