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The lies we live

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Contributed by: Becca Whitnall on 7/16/2007

While driving down my street a few days ago, it was the sights as much as the heat that let me know summer is here. The neighbor tykes across the street were running through the sprinkler in their front yard. When the ice cream man turned the corner onto the street, they went running down the sidewalk to meet him.

It reminded me of my own fun with water toys and sprinklers as a kid ...well, sans the ice cream man, at least when I was very little. When I was very little, my parents told me the ice cream man was the music man, who would simply drive up and down the streets playing music for everyone. That worked till my older and less gullible friends showed me the way and the light.

You'd think I'd have learned to further question other things my parents told me and often I did -perhaps that's where my newsroom cynicism comes from - but still there was plenty, well beyond the normal holiday type stories, that I bought into.

There was the physics fallacy, for example, that caused me to sit in a rather awkward position every time I rode in a car ascending a steep hill after my father told me the car would flip backward if I didn't lean very far forward to help distribute the weight.

As it turns out, I'm joined by others in the newsroom who were hoodwinked by their parents. An informal survey revealed a lot of us were told that if we made silly faces, they might just freeze like that or that if we swallowed watermelon seeds, a plant would grow in our tummies and out our ears. But some parents went a little further.

Another YourHubber was tricked into eating her carrots as a child by a crafty mother who would "see" phantom airplanes flying by. When Julie couldn't see them also, it naturally was because she wasn't eating enough carrots and her eyesight was suffering.

Another Star staffer believed that ear wax was bee wax and, well, he liked honey... We stopped his story at that point, not wanting to hear what undoubtedly would follow.

One of my favorite stories came from a friend of Native American descent whose father explained that the "Watch for falling rocks" or "Watch for crossing deer" signs they'd occasionally pass were alerting the public of missing Indians. Although Ann never did spot Falling Rocks or help him find his way home, I'm betting it gave her something to do (and perhaps helped keep her quiet) on long drives.

Though I don't have any kids of my own, I've found myself doing this kind of thing to my nephews. The 17-year old isn't so gullible now days but the 3-year old is ripe for such things.

The other day, for no reason, I told him the bronze statues of some kids outside a shopping center had been real children who were misbehaving when a witch came by and froze them. Half an hour later, long after I'd forgotten the incident, my unusually well-behaved nephew exclaimed, "Statues! They were only statues!"

I felt so bad that the poor kid had been worrying about being frozen all that time that, right then and there, I decided not to fib anymore. So far I've stuck to the resolution and intend to continue. We'll see how long I can manage...I am, after all, my parents' daughter.

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Submitted By: James Sorrell

posted on 7/17/2007 @ 2:40:45 PM

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Help spread these [volunteer sites] planet-wide and express real empathy, instead!~~~ ~~~~~SUICIDE VACCINE~~~~~[It works, which is the only point, Eh?!] http://CaptainChurch.proboards57.com http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=24582 http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=15311 http://b4.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?user=ChurchCaptain http://groups.google.com/group/TeenAnswers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TeenAnswers http://groups.google.com/group/answers-for-teens http://groups.yahoo.com/group/answers-for-teens http://www.bev.net/users/homepages/JamesSorrell Jim Sorrell [CaptainChurch] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Becca Whitnall

port hueneme , CA

Becca Whitnall has posted 47 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 10/2/2006. Becca Whitnall 's average blog rating is 4.05.

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