transport

I used to believe…

When i was traveling with my parents in our car i believed that our King (yes i'm living in Sweden, a monarchy) always was driving first in the lane, in his car whit the queen. Whatever we where driving the Kings car was always the first car. Imagine that, can there be a first car in the lane? Silly or not...

I used to believe…

Since I can remember my mom always told me that thoughs black and yellow striped signs you see on the side of the road were "racoon crossing" signs. I believed that untill I took drivers ed.

I used to think that the "coast" button on the cruise control would actually take you to the coast, specifically Port Aransas. I was very disappointed when I started to drive and it didn't.

I used to believe…

When I was young, before I knew of the effects of alcohol, I thought you weren't allowed to drink and drive because when you would lift up the cup to drink, it blocked your view of the road. I would then chastise my dad for drinking his coffee while driving us to school because I thought all drinking and driving was against the law.

I used to believe…

Whenever we drove under an overpass, I would wonder how the cars on it got up so high. I finally asked my dad and he told me that cars would wait in line and a crane would lift them up onto it. I spent months waiting for it to happen to us, but I figured I just missed it every time and was horribly frustrated.

Why was the concept of an incline so hard for me?

I bought my first car (used) and right away it broke down. I said "It's a good thing I have car insurance". My mom explained that car insurance only pays for accidents. I was very shocked that I had to pay for the repairs myself. How dumb was I.

I used to believe…

When I was little, before there were seatbelts, we had an old car, and the floor in back was getting rusty, so that you could see the road below through little holes. On long trips, we 9 kids used to take naps in the back window, on the seats, and on the floor. One day my mom, remarking about the little rust holes said "One of these days the whole bottom is going to fall out of the floor." I was terrified and never slept on it again!

I used to believe that the traffic lights were all red yellow and green m & m's. They would all have walkie talkies up there and would tell eachother when to show their back to change the lights.

I used to believe…

Not mine, but a very intelligent mate of mine once asked his father while out in the car what the sticker with GB on the back of a car meant. His father asked him if he remembered what the red letter L meant, to which he replied "learner" - his father then had him believing well into his teens that GB meant "Getting Better"

I used to believe…

My father had me convinced that the traffic lights were controlled by him. He would say, " when I count to three the light will change". He would count one, two ,three, and sure enough it would change. Not knowing that all he was doing was watching when the light in the opposite direction was turning yellow. I was just amazed how he could do that.

I used to believe…

When I was much younger I was terrified of learning how to drive and swore I would never drive as an adult. Why? Because I knew I could never figure out how to make those little movements of the steering wheel (the minor adjustments one makes when the road isn't completely smooth). I couldn't understand WHY people did that; it wasn't as if we were making teeny tiny turns.

I used to believe…

When we drove to visit my grandmother we always got on the highway by turning left near a "No U Turn" sign.

I always thought my dad was going to get arrested because I thought it meant "No You Turn," as in "No Turns Here" (apparently I thought the Sopranos wrote all our street signs).

I used to believe…

When I was little my dad bought a new car. The first car I'd ever seen with cruise control. Dad was bragging about this wonderful feature. So I asked him - just what is cruise control. He explained that it made the car go by itself. I thought about that for a while then asked him - How does it know when to turn? I was so afraid that his new car was going to drive it's self off during the night that for several days I locked the garage door so it couldn't get out.

I used to believe…

My mom HATES red lights when she's driving. (as do I) But when I was about 4 till I was about 7 I thought I had magic powers, that I could use my finger and brain power to change the red lights to green.

I used to believe…

When I was little, I used to wave at the airplanes flying overhead during the day when I was outside - I believed that the people up there could see me and were probably waving back. I even believed this for a few years after taking a flight (and not seeing any little kids waving at me).

At night time, the plane lights were so mysterious to me (because I couldn't see the plane, just the lights) - I thought they were UFOs. I believed aliens were real because I saw a UFO a few times every hour while I was trying to go to sleep!

I used to believe…

When I was little, I thought that when you wound down the window in the car, it would actually roll up into a cylinder of glass. This wouldn't have been too bad, except it took me until I was fifteen to realise that couldn't happen.

I used to believe that there were green, yellow and red fairies that would stick their really big bellies into the traffic to make them change colors. The green one was the nice one that let the cars go; the yellow one was always in a hurry and so could only do her job quickly, and the red one was nasty, thus slow traffic. My mother says she used to say 'Come on traffic light fairies, make the light turn green!' when I was in the car, so that's probably where I got this theory from.