When I was a child I thought that stop lights had little devils inside of them that changed the signals from green to yellow to red and back.
The little devil used levers to change the lights. He looked like the little devil on the Underwood Deviled Ham labels.
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