transport

I used to believe that the 'Hazard' button in cars would get you out of trouble. I imagined that if your car was stuck, for instance, it would sprout massive legs with suction cups on the end so it could walk away.

I used to think the Underground Railroad was literally a railroad, much like an expansive subway system, ferrying people from the South to Ohio and Canada in large trains. I would wonder for hours how they kept the trains so silent that no one would notice them running underneath their houses.

I used to believe that little knomes worked in the traffic lights and changed them when it was time for someone else to go.

I used to beleive that gasoline was made from dinosaurs.

I used to believe…

Circa age 6, I believed that when we crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, we stopped so my father could pay the troll. (The troll lived in the building alongside the bridge, and the uniformed staff at the gates were his employees.)

I used to believe…

When I was a single digit youth, I used to believe the signs on the freeway that stated "Highway Patrol Next Exit" mean't there was an officer waiting to catch people at that exit.

I always wondered why they were telling the motorist if they were trying to catch speeders.

I used to believe that carpooling was actually a pool filled with oil and cars would go in it. I don't know why I thought that, and what the purpose of the car pool was. I even wrote a story about it in second grade.

I used to believe…

At the age of fourteen I had an old motorbike that I rode around the fields. My dad glanced at it one day and said "your milometer runs out soon". I asked him what he meant and he explained that when all the numbers reach nine and then turn over the engine just locks up completely and never goes again. I told him I didn't believe him but I rode it veeerrry slowly when it got near to that number and breathed a big sigh of relief when it didn't stop.

I used to believe…

Next to the Tamar road bridge between Plymouth and Cornwall is the railway bridge, built by I.K. Brunel, and it has an unusual tube-like structure along the top. I used to think that the trains went inside this tube, and had to jump down onto the track at thend.

I used to think the road we lived on was the longest road on the planet. In reality it's about 50 miles long. Today, I drive the length of it regularly when visiting relatives.

I used to believe that the motorway had a special device underneath it that made cars go faster. Now that I think about it, the device was clockwork and had many flashing red lights.

I used to believe that the bands we heard on the radio in the car were live performances. There were little people in the car dashboard. Since my mother listened to the Beatles quite often, I thought there were mini copies of the Beatles living in my car and we could command them to play songs for us. There were also announcers and such.

I used to believe…

My mother told my little brother and I that the cigarette lighter in the car was a detonation device that would make the car explode.

I used to live under the flightpath for a busy airport.

At night, as the jets flew over, I always expected that an engine would fall off the plane and pulverise me in my bed.

The whine the turbines made as they throttled down for landing sounded just like something big and heavy falling...

I was looking around the new Rover my dad had bought when I was about 4, and I saw there was a line that went all around the inside of the roof of the car. I also noticed there was a little box in the roof my dad could remove. I asked my mum what they were for, and she told me so that we could lift the top of the roof off, the car thus being convertible. They never converted it, and I didn't know why...

I used to believe…

my first boyfriend tld me that the VW Beetle only had two pedals - the clutch pedal and the accelerator/brake pedal that you had to kick from side-to-side in order to use each function.