cars

my Dad told me that a car could run on air for 10 miles because it had gremlins in the engine to keep it going - I belived until I ran out of petrol and the car didn't carry on - at all.

Anon

I used to think that the car stayed still and the earth turned under it. Obviously the car bounced and rocked because turning the earth was such hard work... that's also why there was a whole line of cars on the road, because one would not be strong enough. I thought the line of cars going the other way was there to stop the days getting longer or shorter due to everybody driving and speeding the earth up.

becky

One day while sitting in the back of my mum's car (aged 6 or so), I somehow invented the belief that if we stopped on a bus stop for any reason at all, we'd turn into a taxi, have to take someone wherever they wanted to go, and I'd be late for school. This was quite a fearsome problem, given rush-hour traffic, and that being late was SUCH a taboo...

R

I used to believe that if you didn't fasten your seatbelt while in a car, the car would also crash. Also, that if you were in a carpark and didn't hold the hand of an adult, the police would come and arrest you.

Megan

when i was a kid the electrecity used to go and it would get dark. so i thought that every thing was being run on electrecity and their was no light so when i saw cars i used to think that why dont the cars light go out so my father told me that they have batteries so until i was 7 i used to keep a 1.5 volt battery with me every day people told me but i never believed until i was in grade 4 science told me everything

umair aslam

When we used to go on holiday on the motorway I always believed that the 'posh' cars were the only ones allowed to travel in the lane nearest the central reservation!
Needless to say we never went in that lane.

D.M

When I was very small I asked my mother why cars had hood ornaments (back in the 50's). She said "to cover two holes". For years I believed cars were manufactured with two holes in the hood and the hood ornament was there to hide them.

Dave

I thought my dad could drive with his eyes closed. He'd let the car drift to one side, and of course I'd yell for him to open his eyes so we wouldn't crash. In reality, he'd close his right eye, while leaving the left open.

Twenty years later, whenever I'm in the car with him, I have to look over to make sure his eyes are open.

karacmonkey, Minneapolis

I was thoroughly convinced that I controlled all stop lights and stop signs from the back seat of my Dad's Gremlin. If the light turned red, all I had to do was repeat, "green, green, green, green!" with all of my might and the light would change. For stop signs, I had to push really hard on the plastic things that held the seatbelts, with my feet. That was the only way the car could start moving again. If I wasn't in the car, and a stop sign came up, my Dad would have to get out, sit in the back seat and push on my "pedals". Then the car would work.

karacmonkey, Minneapolis

I used to believe that using the radio in your car used up your gas

Linda

When I was younger I asked my Dad why he drove over the bumps in the road. He told me he learned to drive at the "Helen Keller School of Driving" it took me years to understand and in the mean time I told many people that's where my Dad learned to drive.

Anne Wilson

I thought the signs and ads offering cash for cars and PU's meant they would buy used cars and really really bad used cars "peeeyeuuu". They meant Pick-ups.

Len

I used to believe that our car could drive itself. While driving, my father would make wild claims about the cars abilities which I was too young to doubt. Illogically, one way he would prove the cars intelligance was by claiming he knew when the light would change, that he in fact could change the stop light from red to green. After he did a long drawn out abracadabbra, the light would change, just like he said it would. Again, I was too young to know he could see the other lanes light as well as guess the change by timing his voice. Lead to having some wild dreams about being in the car alone and driven by a out of control car.

Rene' Joseph

My parents told me that the cats' eyes in hte middle of the road were lit up by a man with a torch running along underground in front of the car.

Tony

When I was four or five, the theme song to Chevrolet advertisements went "the heartbeat of America is today's Chevrolet". Because of this, I thought that Chevrolet made a different kind of car ever day, for instance, they might make Impalas on Monday, Citations on Tuesday, etc.

Jim