Childhood Myths We Accepted as Absolute Fact (and Maybe Still Do)

It's 11:11. Make a wish. Go ahead. Nobody's watching.

If you were a child of the '70s or '80s, or even later, you probably didn't think about it. Catching the clock at 11:11 meant something. In fact, so did 1:11, 2:22 and for some of us, even 12:34. Depending on where you grew up, you either made a wish, or blew a kiss to keep something bad from happening. Nobody made the rules. Nobody wrote them down. It was just a thing, and everyone followed along.

Childhood myths are weird that way. They weren't just things we believed; they were also things that we physically did. Psychologists have a name for it: magical thinking. This is a stage that occurs when kids' imaginations are at their most active, and they convince themselves that doing certain things can control the world around them. Sounds like Harry Potter, right? Holding your breath or lifting your feet to make something happen (or not happen) are both examples.

Did you think the name Kiss stood for something sinister? (Getty Images)

Even Band Names Had Secret Meanings (Or So We Thought)

Now mix in the '80s, when movies, TV, and music videos fueled popular culture like never before, and there was more of it than ever before. Then the Satanic Panic crept in, and grownups were convinced evil was hiding in plain sight. Kids took that fear and created their own versions. Kiss' name supposedly stood for something sinister. Your neighbor swore he could hear the devil's voice if he played certain records backward. Everyone agreed.

Obviously, most of these myths were just silly. Some were oddly sweet. And a few even turned out to be just a little bit true. And as you read through this list, you might blush a bit, like with the 11:11 above, and say, "Oh, I still do this." And that's okay.

Here are 15 childhood myths we took as absolute fact.