When I was a kid, we believed all sorts of crazy stories. And I’m not talking about Santa Claus or whichever religion you wish to bash today-- these weren’t things we were taught, but they arose among ourselves somehow.
I remember:
There was some kid who dialled “666” on their phone, and a creepy voice answered, “helllooo . . . you’re calling HELL!” He told another kid about it, who tried it and FLAMES shot out of the receiver!
The spooky building building we’re in now was the scene of a lady’s MURDER and that musty smell you notice is her BLOOD.
There is a Pig Man skulking around the edge of the playground. That is, a creepy man with the head of a pig. If you run into him, he’ll kidnap you.
If you mix oil and gasoline, it will instantly explode.
What stories went around the short pants set when you were a member?
Only one I can recall right off the bat is “Marybella Beth”, which basically was a version of the ‘summon the evil spirit through the mirror’ UL. Oh, and there was Three-Fingered Willie, rumored to haunt the grounds of the local YMCA summer camp. Our elementary school would go there in late spring for field days; one year a girl found a cow femur and all the kids were sure it belonged to one of Willie’s victims.
“Purple Aki” was a guy who was rumoured to follow young boys around in the North West of England, trying to feel their muscles. Everybody knew about him, but nobody had ever seen him, and he was used as a bogey man.
Turns out it wasn’t an urban legend, and there really is a Purple Aki, who’s been convicted multiple times of sex crimes against young males, including sexually motivated muscle touching. He’s subject to a “muscle touching ban”, and has been banned from entering multiple towns in the region.
I was a little kid living in the United States during World War II. Every now and then there would be a “blackout” at night when we were supposed to extinguish all lights in our houses for a while. All us kids believed that airplanes flew over our city during the blackouts and dropped bags of flour on houses that had lights on. In the morning after a blackout we would get up early and run out to see if any houses in the neighborhood had flour on their roofs.
Trackomaniacs.
Hanging around the train tracks, about 1 mile away, were ‘Trackomaniacs’, adult males who would go up to little boys and stick their hands in the youth’s pants, while leering, and being generally creepy. (We had no idea what sex, perverted or no, was).
Also, the $400 dollar Corvette that somebody had committed suicide in.
The band KISS were devil-worshippers who killed puppies and kittens onstage and the name KISS was an acronym for Knights in Satan’s Service. (this was Alabama in the mid-70s)
Said rumors dispelled quickly after a few kids in my class saw their show at the Birmingham coliseum. My dad also helped by pulling a $20 bill out of his wallet and loudly declaring “This is the only thing that KISS worships!” in front of me and all my friends.
Another big legend was that a woman shopping at the local fabric store died after she reached far back on a shelf and got bitten by a poisonous snake, and subsequently died (the type of snake and how long it took for her to shuffle off this mortal coil varied by narrator).
We had woods behind our house which were owned by a Mr. Peterson (who none of us had ever seen and whose woods we all played in anyway). It was well known that Mr. Peterson, if he caught you, would cut you up with a chainsaw. It also had rusted out semitrailers with rotted tires in one part which we assumed were used for some sinister purpose no matter how many times we hoisted ourselves up to the tiny vent window and saw stacks of abandoned plywood.
Eventually, Mr. Peterson sold the woods and the chainsaws were used to clear cut it into a subdivision.
When I was a kid, I remember being told about satanic cults in the area that kidnapped blond-haired, blue-eyed children for use in sacrificial rituals. This rumor wasn’t limited to the kids; I remember letters being sent home to parents detailing the “situation” and providing various safety tips. I also vaguely recall one year that our recess was moved inside to the gym for a day or so around Halloween, even though the weather was nice.
I don’t know whether to call it an urban legend or just misinformation, but when we wore rubber overshoes to school during the snowy season we immediately took them off when we got inside the building because we all knew that wearing rubber overshoes on wooden floors would ruin your eyesight.
Somewhere out in the country was a 13-sided church. There were various stories, but it always involved walking around it so many times, and then a doorway to hell would open up.
Golf balls had a deadly liquid in the center, which could either burn someone horribly, or explode if exposed to air.
Of course, I opened a lot of golf balls to ascertain the truth. Some had a whitish goo in the center, which seemed relatively inert. The rest had solid rubber cores.
It was fun grinding off the shell on the curb, and unwinding all the rubber bands, I must admit. Less fun when dad asked where his new Titleist golf balls went to.
That is just too much. I had a good laugh over that article. Especially this part:
“In the late 1980s a young man named Gary Kelly was electrocuted at New Brighton railway station, allegedly whilst running away from Arobieke. Arobieke was convicted of his manslaughter, but successfully appealed the conviction on the grounds that he had not acted unlawfully by ‘standing on the platform and looking into trains’. In addition, Arobieke was awarded £35,000 compensation due to alleged racial overtones in the prosecution case.”
Well of course we were all deathly afraid of getting poisoned candy on Halloween. The standard horror story was razor blades in the apples, which never bothered me cause I wasn’t hoping to get any apples.
Wearing a winter coat indoors will cause you to freeze when you go outside.
Swimming after eating will result in cramps and a horrible drowning death.
Rats will leave a ship that is due to sink .
Swallowing chewing gum will cause you to become deathly ill.
Consuming green apples will kill you.
Going outside in winter, after a shower, will result in pneumonia and a lingering death.
Moving a UCGS marker will result in a visit from the FBI, and a long prison sentence