transport

I used to believe…

When I was just learning to read (1st grade), I would read all the signs on the road. While going to the beach in the summer, I saw many signs on the road that said, "No littering. Fine $100.00. I thought the sign said, "No littering, Find $100.00" which, to me, meant that if we found some trash, we could get $100 for it. I immediately told my parents that if we cannot find trash, we could just bring some, place it on the road and then say we found it.

I used to believe…

When I was a little girl my dad always drove a Pontiac, and the headlight dimmer switch was on the floor where we could'nt see it. The indicator light on the dash was shaped like an Indian Head and lit up when the bright lights were on. When we met a car our dad would dim the lights with his foot but he always told us the Indian saw the oncoming car and dimmed the lights for him. Later when we bought a new car it did'nt have an Indian head. My sister and I were really worried that the oncoming traffic would be blinded by our bright lights.Boy were we gullible!

I thought that when you crossed the road that you kept your arms in the same position as the green man. The same goes to the red man by standing with your arms to the side of you.

I used to believe…

When I was little I never noticed my mom set the turn signal, and I thought that the blinkers told her which way to go. When I excitedly asked her how the car knew, I was first skeptical and then disappointed by her turn signal demonstration.

I always wondered what was going on when we drove over gravel in our car (too short to see out the window). One day I asked while my uncle was in the car and he said all the bugs that were in the car were being dumped out. For years I would never stick my hands down in the seat cracks for fear of the creepy crawlies that lived in the car!

I used to believe…

When I was little, I believed that the music that came from the car radio was being played by a person under the engine playing a record player. I always wondered when we started the car why this person couldn't start the music up right where we had last left off.

I used to believe…

Since I never saw wheels under an airplane when it was flying, I thought that when the plane took off, the wheels fell off too. I always wondered how the plane landed with no wheels.

I used to believe…

The buttons that raise and lower the windows in my car are not visible from the back seat. Somehow my niece and nephew, seeing the windows go down but not seeing a "cause" from their seats in the back decided that they were able to control the windows with their voices. Now anytime they ride with me they sing songs and say magic "abacradara" phrases to get the windows to go up and down...except in winter of course, because we all know that windows hibernate in the winter time.

i used to believe that the hazard button on the car was an ejection button and if pressed my seat would eject me out through the sunroof.

I thought that buses had to bend in the middle to go around corners because they were so much longer than cars. I could never figure out how come I couldn't see the bend while I was on the bus.

I used to believe…

When I was little I always had to know where we were going, my dad always used to say,"wherever the car takes us.." as a result, I used to believe the car had auto-pilot capabilites and that the way the car stopped at the red light was that a transparent shield came down and stopped the car softly...when the shield was gone the car would automatically continue it's journey.

I used to believe…

When my daughter was about 5, she believed that a mouse ran around inside the trafic lights, changing it from red to green

I used to believe…

We used to vacation by motorhome a lot and I always thought that on those long cross country trips that "cruise control" meant that my dad turned this on at night so he could go lay down to sleep. I always wondered how the motorhome knew there was a curve coming up? and a McDonalds at the next exit!!!

I used to believe…

When our kids were little, I used to drive an old Rover 2600 that had a low-oil warning light on the dashboard. This thing was huge for what it was, about the size of an adult man's thumb nail. The electrics in that old car were pretty bad, and this light stayed half-on all the time in a soft ruddy glow.
We were all returning home one evening and this glow was just becoming visible in the gathering gloom, and one of the kids asked what it was.
Of course, we told them it was the Sunset Meter that told us it was getting dark enough to put the main lights on...

I used to reckon that, because I always went on holiday by plane, all the places I went on holiday were actually floating around in the sky.

I used to be scared of cars because th fronts looked like faces - headlights for eyes, licence plate for teeth, etc. I thought the car could choose to run you over. For some reason, I felt perfectly safe IN the car.