At an early age, I believed that if you moved your leg, and your knee cracked, then it was broken...

When I was 7 or 8, I went with my sister to play in the park during one winter. A cat followed us to the park. It was a calico, and as I spotted the white patch of fur on its chin, I believed it was rabid...my sister was bending over to pet it, when I shrieked "Don't touch it! It has rabies!" Well, my sister believed everything I said in those days, and she just about shat her pants as I yelled at her "Run! Run!" The two of us ran to the top of the slide with the cat in pursuit, and there we stayed for thirty minutes shouting for help while the cat sat at the bottom of the slide mewing.

Having the overactive imagination I had, I pictured each mew to be the thunderous roar of a tiger.

Finally, as our fingers and toes began freezing, we made a break for it and ran to our grandparents down the street while the cat followed us. My dad found us along the way and picked us up in the car...I was raving about a rabid cat, and it was only when I saw it run away through a driveway through the car window that I started to feel a bit ridiculous.

Of course, I was one of those kids that made up the imaginative tales that had everyone else talking. When I was 5, I had two of my friends, who were 4 and 3, convinced that I was a robot, and that when no one was looking I would go into the bathroom and open a compartment in my chest that was filled with flashing lights (sort of like Darth Vader's armor). There, I had to push certain buttons in a particular order and fill the compartment in my chest with gasoline, otherwise I would purportedly die...

I used to think that teachers, adults, authority figures had all the answers and knew everything.

i used to think there was a god.

I used to think I was indestructible.

I grew up way to fast, I think. I cannot think of one thing that I was told that didnt incite a curiosity large enough to discover the truth.

There was no Tooth Fairy, Santa, submattress-dwellers, closet lurkers (at least until my sisters were teenagers), Easter Bunny, festering cuts due to licking, 30 seconds of germ-free time, omnipotent/omnipresent people (including parents), magical means to get out of chores, possibility of unnatural hair growth, stuck faces, crossed eyes or sudden blindness, windfalls due to wishes, Faeries, Dragons, or Knights in Shining Armor.

As the second oldest of nine, I had a ton of responsibilities while I was home. That, although not the death of my imagination, may have been the reason for my literal view of the world.

I hope.
But so far, hope has not encouraged reality. :)