Did you have a really strange, wacky and out-there irrational belief when you were a child (I mean, besides believing in the boogeyman or Santa Claus or aliens or being indoctrinated into an organized religion)?

When I was a kid, I watched Electric Company and Sesame Street on our local PBS station. One day, they had a pledge drive. I FREAKED OUT. I honestly thought they were going bankrupt, and if they didn't get the money they needed, the station would shut down. I begged my parents to send money in, but they wouldn't. I felt so guilty about watching their programs and not paying for them, but every year, I was relieved to see that they must have met their financial goals because they were still on the air.

Ummm...I'm not sure when I realized the fallacy of this belief. But I think I was a teenager when it happened.

-- Brad (brad@scriptbrads.tv), February 15, 2001

Answers

So let me guess. You still don't send money to PBS. Or NPR. I bet you steal your neighbor's New York Times too. :)

-- notfamous (notfamous@notfamous.com), February 17, 2001.

okay, well, this wasn't as a child. Um, as a teenager, around 15, all my friends were into C-cup bras and I was board flat. I looked like boy (super skinny before that was 'in' wouldn't you know it) and I so wanted to look curvy. A few people assured me, ASSURED me that if I drank Dr. Pepper, my boobs would grown. I was soooo freaking convinced (shut up) that I drank them religiously, constantly, for the next two years. Nothing. (And for some reason only the universe will know, I suddenly grew a curvy figure when I was 19.)

-- toni (toni@la-lagniappe.com), February 17, 2001.

Well, this isn't exactly a wacky, irrational belief, 'cause I knew it wasn't true all along, but when I was a kid I told my friend Toni that if she drank Dr. Pepper, her boobs would grow.

Low and behold, four years later she was Pamela Freakin' Anderson.

-- Reginald Squirrel (rsquirrels@prodigy.net), February 18, 2001.

I can't claim to have ever impacted anyone's future lingere needs... but I did always think that "Chic-fil-A" was actually called "Chick-a- lic". I thought the little chicken had its tongue sticking out or something, and never bothered reading the whole sign. <shrug>

-- Jared (jared@jaredg.org), February 20, 2001.