road signs

Like some others, the "No Passing" signs were confusing to me as a kid.

I thought you weren't supposed to pass that point.

Also, the "Pass with Care" signs... I thought those meant that you had to be careful because there was something really important there. Though I never really saw anything very valuable in those spots, I figured that there had to be something there. I guess I thought that the rest of the time you could drive recklessly because there was nothing important around to hit. Good thing I no longer thought this stuff when I got my license.

Kasey, from Michigan (the state with road signs that read: "Do not pass when opposing traffic present" DUH!)

I thought railroad crossing signs were Pinnochio. On our way to a movie when I was 5 we got stuck by a train. That was when my mother decided to tell me we were going to see Pinnochio. I thought the sign was him until I was about 7 or 8. Whenever we went past that particular crossing I'd say "There's Pinnochio Mommy!!" and she wouldn't argue. Just smile and nod.

Jenn

You know those blue and white service signs that say "H" for hospital? Well, for a short time my older sister worked at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital, so I thought the "H" on the road signs stood for Helen Ellis Hospital, instead of just a regular hospital!

Nikki

I used to think that a sign saying "Dead slow" meant that you had to drive fast. I thought that the sign was asking you to act as if slowness was dead or didn't exist, i.e. drive fast!

Emma

i used to believe that the yellow road sign for curves ahead was really a warning for a car with tenticles. whenever i saw that sign, always kept my eye out for that car.

Anon

When I was a kid I used to believe that those signs on the road that said "Blind Driveway" meant that the driveway was used by a blind person.

Danielle

I used to believe the "Yield" from the road sign was somebody's name.

julia

Everyday when riding the bus I would wonder how many miles we had to travel. I asked my mom to explain this to me, she said that a mile was a measure of distance. So I said ok and went on with that. Later on I thought that a mile was the distance between 2 road signs.

Michele

Whenever we passed "No Passing" signs I thought we were breaking the law so I always got scared and started looking for police. I never told my mom even after I figured out what they really were until about a year ago and I'm 22.

Amber

I used to think the "no stopping sign" used to be a "no shopping sign" and I asked my dad how would people survive?

I was about 4 and a half years old.

Josh

I used to believe that road signs that said "No Passing" meant you couldn't pass that point in the road. I always wondered why my parents drove past those signs.

Anon

Whenever I saw a sign that said "Not a Through Street", I thought it meant the street was still under construction. They weren't "through" building.

I also confused through and thorough.

Vicki J.

Loose chippings
My mother told me to shut my window in the car or loose chippings ( these looked like large frogs with sharp teeth) would spring out of the hedge row and eat me. I was probably a teenager when I sussed it

Ali

When my mom was young her and her family would always go camping and pass signs that said "falling rock." My grandfather told my mother and her siblings that falling rock was the ghost of an indian princess and if you looked real close maybe you could find her. My mom believed this up to the age of 17. Until one day when she was driving with some of her friends and started to tell everyone to look for falling rock.

ryedur

i used to think that the signs that said "not a thru street" meant that no one was allowed to go onto that street...i always wondered how people got to the houses in those streets

jackie!

When I was five or six and my family was driving I used to pay careful attention to all the road signs (I had just learned how to read). Once we came to a sign that said 'Do not pass' and I got really scared because I thought it was illegal to go past those signs. I believed this until I was about nine.

Gerbilo

Do not pick up hitchhikers - your parents tell you that when you start driving and you hear some horror stories on the news. After driving for several years I finally saw an actual road sign with that warning. Took me a few more years to figure out why .. there was minimum security prison nearby. Well, duh!

Better watch out

Coming from a large city with hundreds of different street names, I wondered why so many small towns were stuck on using the name 'Frontage Road'.

Karen