cars
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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?
top belief!
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!
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...
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.
top belief!
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!)
top belief!
I used to think that the right sides of roads are empty in England, since everyone drives on the left.
top belief!
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!
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!
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:)
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.
During my childhood, I loved the color pink, so naturally I wanted a pink car when I was older. However, I had never once seen a pink car, so I was convinced they didn't exist. I was then determined to become a car egineer when I grew up and build a pink car.
Before I was old enough to go to school my grandmar looked after me during the day, whenever we went out anywhere she told me that if I tried to cross the road when there was a car coming i would "get squashed flat like a penny!" and she would always give me a penny to hold to remind me. This thought petrified me, I was always very careful when crossing the road, and I beleived I would end up as flat as a penny untill I was about 10!
I used to believe that there was one person who got up really early and had the freeway all to himself. They got to decide where all the traffic slowdowns and stops would be. He would slow down at certain overpasses, intersections or just random places and that is where the traffic would be all day. This changed once I had to start getting up before the sunrise and realized no it is just silly people all over.
We used to tell my little brother that the power stations on the moterway were where the trolls lived. when the steam was coming out of them they were cooking old cars from the motorway.
We told him that if you break down on the motorway, you have to sit in your car and hold the steering wheel until the trolls came and flicked you home. when my brother saw a car whizzing past he used to think that they had broken down and had been flicked home. It still makes me laugh now.
top belief!
My older brother told me that if you hit the "panic " button for your car, police would come to save you from whatever it was you were panicking about.
I really thought I could "will" a parking space right in front of the store. ie: If I thought about it really hard, I could make somebody move their car just in time for us to have it. If only...
One day, as my Mom and I were driving in the car, I asked my Mom what the space above the glove compartment was for. She told me that it was an air bag. I asked what it was and how it worked. She told me it was to protect you when someone hits you. I reached over and punched her in the arm. Of fear of being punched again, my Mom quickly specified that another car has to hit our car. I was a little disappointed that I never got to see what an air bag looked like!
When I was about four, I had a dream that I accidentaly started our car and managed to drive it all the way to our local post office. It seemed so real to me, I was convinced that it had actually happened. Whenever I asked my parents about it, they would always tell me it never happened. I always thought they were just afraid someone else would find out.
I used to think that when people were given their driver's license, they were designated a side of the road to drive on. Like half of the people would get the left side, half would get the right. And then I thought it was very coincidental that people never hit each other head on.. it sucks 'cause when I found out how it's actually done (everyone on the right side).. it wasn't my parents who filled me in, and I was sooo embarassed 'cause everyone my age already knew and it sucked haha.
When I was younger, about seven, I used to think that cars bent when they turned! :)
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