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.

Sitting on stone steps gave you piles.
Too many sugary sweets gave you worms,
You had to eat meat because it gave you "fibres" (?)
To get rid of a verruca you had to rub it with a bit of steak then bury it at a full moon. By the time the steak had rotted your verruca would be gone.
If you had shingles and the rash went right round you middle and met you would die 😮
Having sex when pregnant caused twins ( ! )

If you got pricked by a thorn you would die of rabies

If you peed in a swimming pool, you would get a purple dye circle around you

Yes, but for us it was a McDonald's mcchicken sandwich!

It was orange curtains in the 60's apparently.

Commonwealth pool ..

Oh! Oh!... KFC mice not chicken; swallowing chewing gum = instant death
..

😳

If you dived into a swimming pool you would hit your head on the bottom and be paralysed.

They are still about in Lincolnshire it seems - https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/history/unsolved-curious-case-lincolnshires-mystery-7007886

@PrawnFree everything was out to get you when you were a kid ..Did you walk around with a mattress strapped round you for protection??

Her Maj the late Queen received an average of two poos a week in the post. And all the toilets on the Royal Yacht Britannia were fitted with macerators to stop mad people from trying to collect the royal poos when they were flushed out into the ocean. Both of these came up in a work canteen conversation when we were all in our twenties and over. They are so weird and ludicrous I can't believe any of us ever believed them, but we were all sat there nodding along, like 'yeah, that definitely tracks'.

https://tvpworld.com/91650513/krakow-introduces-pigeon-contraception-to-curb-booming-population. This is true!!

Rare but it can happen. Depends what type of jellyfish.

That mcdonalds sponsored the IRA

The idea being,if maccies paid them,they wouldn't set bombs off anywhere near them

Grown adults where convinced it was true and so where the kids!

@LethargeMarg my dad used to tell that story!

Oh yes I remember this.

I blame the parents 🤣🤣

I remember Kentucky Fried Mouse, shingles meeting in the middle, apple pips growing into trees in your stomach, poor Marc Almond, swimming pool dye, not to recite the Lord’s Prayer backwards facing a mirror, and that you’d get your head flushed down the loo on the first day of secondary.

i have always wondered what caused my anxiety!!

I grew up in South Africa and we also had about 99% of these myths swirling around including the Marilyn Manson rib!

A horrible one involved a couple going away on holiday and leaving their baby in the high chair as the babysitter was late. They rushed off to make it to their flight in time as the babysitter said she was only 3 minutes away but then she died en route and so the baby was left.

Another one involved some Russian spies staying undercover at an American hotel. They sweeped their room and found a device hidden in a cupboard on the floor which they subsequently dismantled. Minutes later they go downstairs to pandemonium as a massive chandelier has fallen off the ballroom roof and killed a few people. 😂

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There was also the one that was always told as “it really happened to my friend” - friend is late for a gynaecology appointment and grabs some tissues from her toddler daughter’s backpack to ensure she is clean down there. The doctor says “oh you went to a lot of effort” and woman later realises she inadvertently swiped glitter all over her genitals before the appointment.

There is an urban myth that infuriates me whenever I come across it. It is published as fact every few years with actual newspapers quoting police forces and it is the one about criminals leaving identifying litter outside a house to signal to other criminals about what to steal / when / who lives in the house etc. it’s one of the most idiotic things I’ve been read with a red coke can supposedly symbolising - stop don’t rob them and a green can saying you can rob this house. As if criminals would communicate in this way… makes me wonder about people’s ability for critical thought…

I vaguely remember what I’m sure was some sort of documentary either late 80s or early 90s that was about the mystery of people appearing to have spontaneously combusted. I remember images of puddles of clothing or primarily shoes and trousers left behind. There’s an image vividly set in my mind of an arm chair with shoes and trousers in front of it but no human. It concerned me for a while but I’d actually mostly forgotten about it until now. Unless I see a puddle of clothing on the floor and (not seriously) ask if someone spontaneously combusted. It’s dawned on me I should probably explain the link!

Sometimes I kind of wish it was real - I could mark my own house with things like ‘nothing worth stealing here’, ‘alarm system’, ’very angry vicious dog’ etc. Some may be true some may be not … but hopefully they wouldn’t risk it 🤣 🤣 🤣

And for all those mentioning quick sand … that one is not an urban legend nor a myth; that one is very real. At least it is on parts of the coast of Lancashire where I grew up witnessing many a car stuck in the sand of Morecambe Bay!