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.

The trainer tied up on the telephone lines meant that people could do their drug deals there.

I remember that one.

Related to the shoes on telephone lines, a single firecracker bang means "the supplies are in".

That's true

I was just thinking about this one the other day!

There was also one about a teenager using anal beads, causing a leaky bum on the sofa. Then the dad came home and saw the poo. Thought the family dog had shat on the sofa and put the dog down. Think he was a farmer so just shot the dog.

Up until this thread I thought the dye that appears if you pee in the pool was true 🙃

I watched a documentary years ago about people who drilled a hole in their own heads. I thought it was a myth, but it did happen and they said it helped with migraines and other brain problems. So bizarre.

May well be true...

Dandelions are called 'pissenlits' (Piss in beds) in French.

...and the French never lie!

We often hear a random loud single ( sounds like a firework but a firecracker makes more sense). I say to DD " they've got their stash in ). No clue who it is but within next street
So that one is true !

I always read the animal nonsense ones. The Surrey Puma and it's cousin on some farms around Bodmin Moor. I lived in the area at the time.

I do love an unsolved mystery though and shows like Uncanny. People are convinced so many things are true , but often it might just be urban legends or myths passed around , a lot of which I heard at school long before the internet.

Ours was the white lady of salmsbury hall

When i was growing up my parents had a painting of a woman's face with dark hair crying.
Much Later i read something that if you had this painting it would cause your house to set on fire..every house that burned down,the only thing to survive was the painting.

This sounds similar to the urban legend about the crying boy painting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_Boy

Trepanning (making a hole in the skull) was used as a treatment in prehistoric times. Imagine the pain of that!

I think I saw the documentary @the80sweregreat is talking about. I was actually quite intrigued. The man drilled a hole in his own head right on the crown and because he was doing it himself the drill went in some way but he did not report any ill effects. He then drilled his partners head and because he had the practice and its easier doing someone else's he made a better job of hers.

I remember they both said its didnt really hurt once you had got through the thin layer of skin. Drilling the actual skull didnt hurt.

She showed photographs that they took at the time and she had some blood in the tissues on her head but she was smiling or even laughing and I remember she said that afterwards she had a steak dinner and then that night they went out to a party!

The supposed benefits were a rush of blood or generally more fresh blood in the brain which had numerous positive effects such as increased creativity, wonderment at the world and a child like enthusiasm for life according to the couple.

The head drilling documentary was so weird wasn’t it.
It must have been on over 20 years ago if not more and I do remember them just doing it and then getting on with their day. All so bizarre.

The human combustion thing is interesting been going for a very long time, I think it was a written into Bleak House by Charles Dickens

And wells. Wherever we were exploring as kids (in the countryside obvs) we were careful not to fall down one. Not sure we ever came across one actually.

Oh and Danny from Uncanny Robins with his little red coat .
Last October he did a short programme every day on You Tube

"Don't try this at home"😂

Don't pull face as if the wind changes you'll be stuck like it!

(DGM)

The Spontaneous Human Combustion thing is nonsense.

There’s a really good YouTube series by someone called Mysterian who debunks all sorts of woo shite. He really delves into stuff like this.

I'd like to start a new one...which is that tradespeople deliberately botch jobs so that there's a constant workstream...I don't know how it actually operates but I'm bloody sure it's TRUE!