transport

I used to believe…

When I was a child I used to belive tha there was a man under the road working the traffic lights. I used to press the button harder and look more eager in case the man saw me and made the lights change quicker!

I used to be a little upset and a little confused that we always drove on the right side of the road. I wanted to see what it was like to drive on the left for once, and I could never understand why we didn't. If we were always on the right side, then we'd have to go all the way around the world to get back home, since we were going in the same direction, right?

I used to believe that if you were moving at 20 miles an hour and wanted to go at 30 you had to briefly go at 40mph to fill in the gap.

i.e. 30mph - 20mph = 10 too little, if you travel at 40mph you have an extra 10 mph to spare which will fill the gap between 20 and 30 and so it would all even out at 30.

I know... I know... physics just wasn't my thing!

I used to believe…

Once, driving on a long journey, my father became worried that his fog lights (also known as main-beam headlights) were not working properly. He got out of the car and Mum flashed the lights from "ordinary" to "fog light". I noticed that Dad turned away whenever it turned to "fog light," and being a nine-year-old who knew nothing about cars, I asked why.

"Oh, if the light shines in his eyes he won't be able to see anything," Mum explained.

Flash forward to me at the age of fifteen, on yet another car journey. We discover that the single-track road that Mum's been driving down is blocked by a closed gate, but the land owner appears out of nowhere and opens it for us. Mum appreciatively flashes her lights, except that instead of putting them on and off, she flicks them to fog light...

"Mum!" I scream. "Turn it off, that's the fog light! He'll go blind!"

Turns out they'd only been talking about being temporarily dazzled...

I used to believe that when they said that you lost your luggage, that it actually fell out of the plane and landed in someones back yard. So i was always amazed when they found it.

I used to believe…

When going to the mountains, you drive straight up the mountain. I always wondered how the car would make it straight up the side of the mountain.

I used to believe…

As I was little I thought the rails in the city for the tram were electrical - so I never stepped on them, I jumped like a rabbit, as I didn't want to get an electrical shock. Today I know better but I still don't feel well, when I have to cross those rails and I try to avoid, stepping on them... (I am 31).

I used to believe that gas station attendants (circa the 1960's) were all men named "Ethel" -- as in, "Fill it up, Ethyl," which is what my dad told the snappily uniformed gas station dude everytime we went to a gas station. (And if you don't know, "Ethyl" was what Premium was called back then!)

I used to think that the upper struture on the caboose was the rest room.

I used to believe…

In my moms car there were little ashtrays on the sides of the doors that had a little picture of a cigarette on it so you'd know what it was for. The picture was so tiny, that when I was little, I thought it was a picture of a boat, and that you were supposed to hold on to it if a boat was crashing into your car! Then, when I told my mom my theory, she told me that the picture was actually of a cigarette. Til I was 9 I thought that was there for blind people who couldn't tell what the ashtray was for!

I used to believe that there were Hobbits inside traffic lights that changed the lights from green, to yellow, to red.

I used to believe the car somehow 'knew' which way you would turn at a stop. I didn't know there was a signal indicator beside the wheel, and my mother didn't bother to tell me otherwise!

I used to believe…

One day I was asking someone what all the buttons on a car did. I was told that the button I now know as the "Rear Defrost" was a self destruct button and if pushed, the car would blow up in about 10 seconds. I found out MANY years later the truth, only because I never dared to push it!

I used to believe…

Upon watching "The Dukes of Hazzard" I believed that there must be a button in all vehicles that would cause them to jump wildly through the air "YeeeHaaw". When I asked my mom where this button was on our ugly red paneled station wagon, she had to pull over she was laughing so hard:)

I used to believe…

My friend told me when we were in her car that if you press that button (which wasnt even a button) then you will go flying out of the car roof, from the springs in the seat. I didnt dare touch it. The button was the seat-belt sign.

I used to believe that the turning signals in the car were automatic and that the car knew where we were going. It wasnt untill I got to sit in the passanger seat that i realized the driver did the signals.