What Urban Legends do you remember from childhood?

[Palomiino]

The ones that stick in my mind are;

Supermodels harbour tapeworms as a way to keep their weight down.

Prince had a rib removed so he could give himself oral.

Various iterations of terrorist plots (IRA in the 80s) where an Irish chap told someone you know not to go to a particular shopping centre on a certain date because there was going to be a terrorist attack.

A woman driving her car was being stalked by another driver who was actually trying to warn her about an assailant on her back seat.

@UnintentionalArcher Wow. Did you actually have to climb up inside the slides, before the water was switched on, to survey them? I suppose that’s possible, if they’re not too steep. Would you be wearing shoes for the climb? I’ve seen lifeguards going down the slides (with the water) fully clothed, if they’re can’t be bothered to go down the stairs when they change shifts.

I love water slides, especially as an adult (I couldn’t swim as a child, and hated swimming pools, so I missed out on the fun of them), and I never heard of this myth.

There were rumours at my primary school that the cane was still used secretly, after it had been banned in 1987. This circulated when we learned about Victorian schools, and their punishments, including being hauled up to the ceiling. The building was Victorian, with high ceilings, and it was very easy to believe that these things actually happened, both now and then.

Some of the older children (and lots of teachers) claimed to remember the cane actually being used, and sounded almost wistful.

I remember most of these. I’m a 70s kid but had totally forgotten about chain mail letters. Funny times

Well, DH and I did actually see a panther (or similar) with our own eyes in a field relatively near us. It was about 35 years ago so not that long after unscrupulous owners released their ‘pets’ after a change in the law. Whether these things went on to breed of course is a different matter - so not convinced that’s a myth.

The cane was used in the 80s even?? My goodness I thought that was my dad’s era - not mine.

No, not as far as I know but this was the 60s/70s. I’m not sure what happened to the poor sheep.

I think it was abolished in 1986 for state schools in England - I know it existed when I started secondary school as I remember someone getting it!

I seem to recall it was legal in private schools for some time after that.

Not sure if the law was different in Scotland,NI or Wales.

Marianne Faithful and the Mars Bar was very persistent. No truth in it by all accounts.
If you didn't get downstairs by the time the loo stopped flushing something bad would happen.

Bad luck to walk over 3 drain covers in a row.

Had to swear out loud if you walked under a road sign post otherwise you’d get bad luck.

Love it 😆

Thanks I shall use this joke (to appropriately aged friends) as even I can remember this punchline

Paula Yates said that Michael Hutchence did a variation of this on her where it was oysters rather than a Mars bar.

I remember being scared to use the toilet at night because I thought I would be eaten by a wolf if I didn't get back into bed before the flush finished. (No idea where the wolf would have appeared from.) I always thought it was just me who thought this!! I have never heard anything like it mentioned by anyone else.

Yikes. Such devotion. Such contortions !

My siblings and I all had this dread! Also I think Peter Cook mentions it in a sketch ? So we are not alone ....

You physically cant sneeze without closing your eyes as if you did your eyes would pop out.

At the back of our school was a cluster of trees that we referred to as ‘the woods’. There was a tree with red paint splashed up it and the kids in school genuinely believed a murderer lived in the woods and the red paint was the blood from one of his victims. I remember going to fetch a ball that got close to the trees and I was utterly terrified at the thought of becoming his next victim. 😂

The one where Bristol Zoo had a man who collected parking fees from the grassy area outside the zoo for many years. One day he didn't turn up for work. They went into the staff records and couldn't find a staff record for him (it was in the days of paper files).
The zoo rang Bristol City Council . They can't find a record for him, because they believe that he is a zoo employee .
The man isn't employed by either. He's been working for himself and scarpered once he'd earned enough to retire abroad.

My dh was told by an ex policeman that someone was pulling a scam at a theme park with the parking fees and also ran off with millions apparently.
If it’s true or not it’s hard to say. He looked official and it must have been years before the internet and so on.
I always thought it was free parking , but last time I went to a theme park was over 30 years ago.
It’s probably just one of those stories that may have some truth to it , or just passed off as a myth!

Ok, this is a weird one but after discovering I was not alone in my belief in the toilet wolf I'm hopeful someone may be able to help me out here.

I have a "memory" (it can't be an actual memory but it feels like that) of a woman in the woods behind my house in a cage in a tree. Whenever we went into the woods we had to be really quiet in case we woke her up. And that's all I remember. I don't know why she was there, why she was always asleep or what would happen if she woke up. There's every chance that this was a fairy tale inspired dream but maybe it's part of a bigger story. I lived in Guisborough at the time in case that's relevant. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm 65. When I was 11, first year in secondary school, there was a rumour that a gang of skinheads were coming to school to smash the place up and knife everyone. They were supposed to ask if your mum could sew and if you said yes, they'd slash your face and say tell her to sew that. I remember being terrified. Of course it never happened.
Another one was the story of the couple whose car breaks down in the countryside and the man leaves the woman alone to go and get help. She falls asleep and is woken by banging on the roof. An escaped lunatic has cut her boyfriend's head off and is bouncing it on the roof.
A really frightening one was when there was supposedly an official warning that the Yorkshire Ripper was going to kill someone in our town.

There is an episode of uncanny about him!

I was working and attending college as day release in Manchester. There were bomb threats at the time.

When we went for lunch one girl insisted we eat in McDonalds because it wouldn't be bombed.

The one about the warning not to be in a certain shopping centre is still around but now it is a Muslim giving the warning.

I went to a catholic school, we had quite a few pupils with Irish relatives. There were claims from several that their parent was asked to take a package back to England, they were curious, opened it and found a gun / explosives.

Ah yes, post 9/11 it became Muslims. I’ve heard the one about the package, too!