The things you believed as a child.

[Prodigal2]

That Captain Scarlet was a real person (wood and strings were no barrier to my childhood imagination) and that my neighbour Danny Tumulty was going to take me to meet him.

[Eric Plumrose]

That I was mates with Gary Numan.

That THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY TV series really did contain the Answer to life, the universe, and all owt else.

That you could pause live TV.

[JamesC]

I thought Delia Smith was Margaret Thatcher.

[SuperSurfer]

That Saturday afternoon wrestling on ITV's World of Sport was real. Well, it was real but I didn't realise it was pantomime wrestling. I thought the canvas was made of some sort of special material and if a wrestler was downed and the opponent stamped on the canvas next to him, it would transfer some sort of shockwaves that would cause much pain. Years later I realised: no, that was wrestlers pretending to stamp on their opponent. Needless to say, I felt mugged off.

Having said that, someone told me years ago he had to point out to an acqaintance that WWF is scripted. That WWF fan was training to be a lawyer. I always wondered what he made of Mr Socko. 

[Tiplodocus]

Some wag pointed out that there are three key points in your childhood:
- Learning that Santa is not real
- Realising that the mime on Top Of The Pops
- Discovering that not all foreign films are dirty.

Tharg is real.though. oh yes.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I thought Delia Smith was Margaret Thatcher.

I thought her name was Margaret Statue, till my dad put me right.

Having an older brother who enjoyed filling my head with gubbins, I also believed that people 'in the olden days' did two things:  (a) Crumple paper by passing it from hand to hand in large, dramatic swoops; and (b) tear the pictures out of their pop-up books along the perforations, send them off in the post, and be sent back a stuffed toy of whatever the picture was.

I was also led to believe that 'Fawlts' (who had donated their 'Fawlts' nails' and 'Fawlts' teeth' to my mother and granny respectively) were people with no heads.

[Dandontdare]

I went to a catholic primary school so I swallowed a whole load of gubbins - the realisation in my teenage years that Purgatory, Limbo, guardian angels etc weren't actually in the bible played a large part in me rejecting all religions.

Guardian angels in particular worried me. we had a big painting in school of a kid running by a cliff edge with this HUGE angle shielding him from the edge with its wing - that terrified me, as did the thought of this personal angel spying on me 24/7, including when having a poo.

I was also told by a friend (early 70s) that there were only two computers in Britain, and one of them was ERNIE (the premium bonds computer). Can't remember what the other one was.

I believed that I'd seen a ghost/monster  - on the way home from a neighbour's after dark (we'd been swapping ghost stories), I looked down the street and saw two glowing red eyes receding into the distance - scared the shit out of me but it wasn't until I thought about it years later and realised it was probably just a car's tail lights.

[Old Tankie]

That Bowie was immortal.

[SuperSurfer]

That the Two Ronnies were brothers.

[8-Ball]

That if you unscrew your belly button your bum will fall off. My dad always took great delight in telling me that.

[JamesC]

That the people who presented the children's programmes were good role models.

[Dandontdare]

That Bowie was immortal.

That if you unscrew your belly button your bum will fall off.

[TordelBack]

That the Russian army was composed entirely of mercenaries, because the were constantly switching sides.

[blackmocco]

That if I shouted in the speaker of our TV, the person onscreen could hear me. I spent about two years convinced that's how you got on the phone to Swap Shop. Never got that Action Man.

[The Legendary Shark]

That the green algae sitting on top of the water in drainage ditches was a supernatural being called Jinny Greenteeth who would leap out and pull you in if you got too close.
.
That there was a complex network of tunnels underneath every road in the country where an army of people worked at night. Their job was to turn on the cats' eyes as cars approached and turn them off again after the cars passed.
.
That my Auntie Valerie really meant it when she said, "you're so sweet I'm just going to put you in my oven, cook you and eat you!"
.
That Captain Kirk was the first man on the Moon.