When I was little, I thought that a "no outlet" sign meant that the street didn't have any electrical outlets. It always puzzled me how the people in houses on "no outlet" streets could get by without power. Similarly, I thought that a "dead end" sign meant that there was a heightened risk of something bad happening on that road, so if you got hurt or died, at least you were warned.

Heather

when I was younger I thought that the "do not pass" traffic signs meant that we
shouldn't be driving by that spot. I was so confused as to why they would
put a sign like that on a road, and why they didn't just close down the road.
I never asked my mother, though, because I was afraid to point out that everyday
she blatently broke the law.

erin

sitting on my dad's lap while he was driving as a child, I always thought that the turn signals told you where to go if you ever got lost.

Rich

Up until I was in my twenties I could not understand how Deer Crossing signs worked.. I mean, how could the deer understand that they were supposed to cross the road where the sign was??? It didn't dawn on me until one day I saw a neighbor had posted a "baby raccoon crossing" sign in the neighborhood - that did it for me - I knew that baby raccoons could not possibly understand the sign...then it all started filtering in.....

clueless in seattle

"no Parking Between 9 to 5 "
The sign read.
I could never figure that out.
9 is usually AFTER 5.

AND....I was 7....and I couldn't even see over the dash board let alone DRIVE!
So even if i could drive...i never saw a sign letting me know where I "could" park.

Atredies

When I was a child, I always wondered why $300 was "Fine for Littering" and who had that much money just to throw out the car window?!

Rod

I was taking my first trip to Florida without any adults. As I crossed the Kentucky/Tennessee line I noticed a sign that said "Be Alert, Arrive Unhurt," with a picture of a bee. I turned to my friend and asked, "Do they have a bee problem in Tennessee?" Needless to say, my friend had to pull over because of hysterical laughing and I had no clue that the sign just meant to be careful!

anonymous, because I wasn

I used to believe that the road signs that pointed up to indicate forward moving traffic were signs intended for airplanes. Naturally, since the sign pointed up, it meant for airplanes to fly up.

Anon

One day when I was young, my mom and I were out on the town. I was sitting in the seat next to her and was drawing a picture. When I was done, I asked my mom to look at it. She said she couldn't cause she was watching the road. Well I looked out at the road and saw all these little lines on the roads..I believed that you could tell what road you were on by the lines in the road...didn't know about road signs! I remember thinking I would never be able to drive, cause I wouldn't get all the lines memorized!

pj

Until I was around 22 (yes, I know) I could never understand the signs on motorways that said "Slow Lorries". I thought there must be a depot of lorries which couldn't travel very fast. It was only when I mentioned this to one of my friends that she laughed and pointed out these signs were always at the bottom of hills!

Elizabeth, UK

I grew up in a mountainous region of Kentucky. In many places, the road cuts through the hills and rocks will fall off of the cliffs on to the road. There are signs that read "Fallen Rock Zone." My Papaw had a story he would tell me about an Indian cheif who was looking for his missing daughter. Her name was Fallen Rock and when you went into a Fallen Rock zone, you were supposed to keep an eye out for her. I would scan the area for her every time I saw one of those signs. According to my friends, I am not the only child who was told this. Maybe it is a Kentucky thing...

Lil Nicki

When I was about 6 or 7 I used to think "Give Way" signs meant you had to get out of your car, tell someone else where you're going, and then they'd do the same and you'd each have to travel to the other person's destination. I assumed that the only reason my dad didn't do this was because it was so inconvenient.

Jim, UK

Not quite my own belief.... when my son was small we frequently had to cross a draw bridge, naturally the aproach to the bridge was always preceded by a sign that simply said, "Draw Bridge". We still laugh at how furiously he would fraw a bridge so that we wouldn't fall into the water while crossing the bridge.

Anon

When first arriving in Australia as a young boy I used to see signs on the roadside stating "Caution: Road Plant Ahead"
I had no idea what it meant as I never spotted any plants causing a problem. I did sometimes see some road works which I guessed where needed as plants had damaged the road.
It was only much later that I learnt that the term plant was used for roadworking machinery.

johnd

i used to believe that the yellow road sign for curves ahead was really a warning for a car with tenticles. whenever i saw that sign, always kept my eye out for that car.

Anon

I used to believe that the 'Emergency Stopping Lane' was in fact, the Emergency Shopping Lane, and used to desperately look for any sign of the shops!

Jacinta

When I was young and we drove past streets with 'no exit' signs, I thought it meant that once you went down the street, you could never get back out!

Greer, New Zealand

when i was a kid i used to believe that those "speed zone ahead" signs meant that cars were going real fast. so i would look out the window waiting for this "zone" to come up.but traffic seamed to slow down for some odd reason.

tommy

When I was really little, whenever my father and I were out driving and there was a "Watch for Falling Rocks" sign, he used to tell me that there was a Native American man named Falling Rocks. It doesn't stop there. He then went on to tell me that Falling Rocks used to hide on the tops of cliffs and throw rocks at cars.

Gord

I used to think the 'turn left with care' sign at the corner said 'Turn left with car'. This seemed so obvious that having a sign about it seemed silly. Once I mentioned this fact to my mother in a world weary voice. She found that so funny it became one of her favourite stories to tell other adults.

I guess in the US and Europe that would be turn right...

The Contemporary Taoist