transport: cars

When I was around five years old, while my mother was driving, she would tell me not to stick my hands and arms out of the car while she was driving, because they would get chopped off. So I thought people in other cars carried axes and the minute I stuck out my arm, it would be actually chopped off with an axe.

I used to believe that cats eyes were lit up by a man running under the road with a torch

I used to believe that the way they paint the lines on the road was to have 2 men (one with white paint, the other with yellow) hanging upside-down from thier knees on the back of a truck. I still think that's a better way than with machinery.

My dad told me and my siblings to scrunch together in the back seat of his truck whenever we'd pull out of our driveway, so we'd fit.

When we went on car trips my parents used a stick-on screen on the car windows, to keep out the sun. One time my brother took one off the window and placed his finger over a hole in the bottom of it. He told me it was peanut butter, and I remember trying to get it out as hard as I could.

i used to sit in the back seat of the car and use the frost scrapper as a steering wheel, pretending to drive. on the way to the store, we'd pass under i-270, and i swore that the day i got my driver's license i would hop on 270 and ride it till the end, wherever it took me. i was devastated when i learned i-270 was the city outerbelt, and driving it to its end would mean driving around in circles.

When I was little I used to believe that when you got your drivers license you automatically new how to get everywhere. I still remember sitting in the car with my dad and asking him this question. He never did answere me, he just laughed.

I used to believe my dad could honk the car horn by pushing on a mysterious spot on the roof of the car.

When I was a kid, I believed that gas stations were set up where they struck oil, like in cartoons: "Eureka! there's oil in them thar hills!" And they would quickly build a gas station. The truth was told to me when I remarked to my parents on a 4-gas station New Jersey intersection: "They sure discovered a lot of oil around here."

I used to believe that the semi-trucks that transport livestock, actually were used to collect wind throuhg the slats on the side. The driver drove around, collected the wind in the trucks, then released it at lakes or the ocean. This was the conclusion I came up with when I learned sailboats used wind to move. I figured you had to have a way to guarentee there would be wind to move the sailboat. The first time I actually saw cows in a livestock truck was really sad and confusing. My mom had no idea how I had come up with the idea.

I use to believe that when the car in front of you put on their turn signal you would have to put your signal on too so that the cars behind you knew that the car in front of you was going to turn. It was only later I realized that everyone was turning.

I used to think that the wind-chill factor was the wind-shield factor, and that when you touched the windshield of your car, that's what temperature it felt.

I used to belive that the road moved like an escelator and the car stayed in one place.

Red cars cause accidents.
When I was around 5 my older brother told me that red cars are in the most accidents. Obviously, he was quoting something statistical. For years I thought there was something intrinsically dangerous with red cars and was puzzled why people would intentionally purchase something that was known as "more dangerous".

I was around six when I asked my father what why some cars had GB on the back. He informed me that it was the next stage after being a Learner driver and it meant 'Getting Better'. Seemed reasonable to me.

When I was young there were no seat belt laws so no one in my family wore them. The seat belts were always tucked into the crease of the seat. I always wanted to use them but I thought that if I were to pull them out I would damage the car and get into trouble.