# Stuff adults told you as a kid that you believed **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 11, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796 "2010-10-11T15:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/1 "2010-10-11T15:53:49Z")
In my elementary school P.E. class, we played a game that involved throwing around and catching some rubber balls, with a big red ball that the teacher would roll at us and told us never to touch because it was “poisoned”. I genuinely believed that the ball was poisoned and if I touched it I would have to go to the hospital. What outrageous stuff did adults tell you when you were a kid that you believed like the gullible sap you were? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/2 "2010-10-11T16:12:50Z")
When I was bad (well, annoying) on road trips my parents would threaten to put a sign in the window with a price on it and sell me. I’d beg them to make me expensive. They had no idea I _believed them._ ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/3 "2010-10-11T16:51:45Z")
For years my dad told me stories about this Indian Brave named “Falling Rock”; we kept driving past these areas marked “Watch Falling Rock” and my dad had me convinced to look out for this Indian guy… ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/4 "2010-10-11T16:59:01Z")
> [@Indyellen](#): > > For years my dad told me stories about this Indian Brave named “Falling Rock”; we kept driving past these areas marked “Watch Falling Rock” and my dad had me convinced to look out for this Indian guy… Wait! Falling Rock was an indian _princess_! I’m still looking for her. When my grandfather didn’t want to get out of his chair for some stupid thing I wanted him to do or see, he’d move his knee cap around and tell me he couldn’t walk right then, because he had a bone in his knee. Not really a lie, since, indeed, he had a bone in his knee. I never questioned why he could walk at other times. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/5 "2010-10-11T17:31:16Z")
A chaperone at band camp convinced me that my burning lips were due to a lack of vegetables and not sunburn. I ate more vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/6 "2010-10-11T18:37:51Z")
All of a piece of bread’s vitamins were contained in the crust. Same with potatoes (although in that case it was the skin, and not the crust). ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/7 "2010-10-11T18:43:46Z")
> [@Ol\_Gaffer](#): > > All of a piece of bread’s vitamins were contained in the crust. Same with potatoes (although in that case it was the skin, and not the crust). My sainted maternal unit told me this when I wouldn’t eat the crusts of my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was actually traumatized when I discovered that she had LIED to me. Really. I am still in therapy over this. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/8 "2010-10-11T18:44:37Z")
My father once told me that [lebanon bologna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_bologna) (a regional thing) was horsemeat. I didn’t eat lebanon for almost 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/9 "2010-10-11T18:48:06Z")
Oh, I forgot - bread crusts make your hair curly. Only I didn’t _want_ curly hair. (And also I didn’t and still don’t like crusts.) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/10 "2010-10-11T19:05:10Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Oh, I forgot - bread crusts make your hair curly. My Mom told me that one too! I didn’t believe her even then but I do love my curly hair. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/11 "2010-10-11T21:28:25Z")
Grown-ups told me that God was real. Also Santa. But one of the oddest was that my father claimed that “Schuylkill” was an Indian name. (It is obviously Dutch and means something like “hidden river”. Actually nowadays we know it means “perpetual traffic jam”.) ---
**Author:** ![smaje1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@smaje1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaje1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/12 "2010-10-11T21:30:40Z")
My parents told me I was the kidnapped Romanov princess Anastasia. I used to beg them to send me back to Russia, where I’d be royalty and not have to deal with my evil older sister. ---
**Author:** ![Euryphaessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/13 "2010-10-11T23:11:07Z")
I really did believe that if I made weird faces/bent my ears, it would stay that way forever. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/14 "2010-10-11T23:53:11Z")
> [@Ol\_Gaffer](#): > > All of a piece of bread’s vitamins were contained in the crust. Same with potatoes (although in that case it was the skin, and not the crust). Wait, that’s not true of potatoes? I’m sure I’ve heard that from a reputable source! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/15 "2010-10-12T00:26:51Z")
Quite the opposite. Potato skin is a cork-like substance that’s actually a little bit poisonous in large doses. ETA - your mom? Not a reputable source, probably. Mine wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/16 "2010-10-12T00:32:46Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Oh, I forgot - bread crusts make your hair curly. Only I didn’t _want_ curly hair. (And also I didn’t and still don’t like crusts.) Charlie Brown actually said that once. I’m not sure if it was in the strip or one of the specials. One time when I lost a ‘baby’ tooth, my Granddad told me if I never touched the space where it fell out, the new one would grow in gold. I tried so hard not to but eventually did. I was crushed. 😃 (Our only toothy smiley). ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/17 "2010-10-12T00:39:27Z")
My grandmother told me that if I ate chicken wings I could learn to fly. All because I HATED wings and that’s what was left over for the children (olden days when all adults were served first). She’s lucky I only tried to “fly” from the roof of the shed into a snowbank. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/18 "2010-10-12T00:42:19Z")
When I was a kid there would occasionally be heard some kind of air-raid sounding siren off in the far distance, I don’t know what for. My father told me it was a moose, off in the hills. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/19 "2010-10-12T00:46:32Z")
When I was a young 'un, my grandpa used to talk to me in ‘Chinese’. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that he was talking gibberish. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796/20 "2010-10-12T02:29:30Z")
Oh, I remember another - my dad used to armwrestle me and let me win, and I just thought I was naturally talented at arm wrestling. (I was, like, six. He was, like, 6’2".) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-adults-told-you-as-a-kid-that-you-believed/556796.md?page=2)