When I was little I always thought that the traffic lights were not going because of electricity, but because of little men living in them. The little men would see when no cars were coming and see how the other cars were waiting. So the little man who was in charge of the green light would tell the yellow one and the yellow one would tell the red one, and the red one would unstrew his lightbulb and the yellow one would screw in his yellow lightbulb and so forth.
But I'd always wondered how they got any sleep
A childhood belief about traffic lights

you weren't the only one
254 of you believed this
- I thought traffic lights were controlled by little men who lived inside them. Anon
- "Traffic lights are operated by monkies inside of them" or so a very reliable source informed me.— guuy
- when i was about 5-8 i used to believe that oompa loompas lived in traffic lights and controlled the lights!!— ~wierd ~
- i used to beleive that elves controlled traffic lights.— Jessica
- I thought that little tiny people changed the color of the stop lights.Anon
- When I was little, I was thought that little elves controlled the traffic lights..— Rosie