cars

There was a garage on our block with a sign above the door that said, "All cars must come to full stop." I thought that "Full Stop" was the name of the garage and that every car in the world was obliged to come to it at least once.

CC

For obvious reasons, I thought "car pooling" meant riding in a car that was able to go underwater. This made perfect sense to me -- since roads could not be built over lakes, having a car that could just cut through the lake would reduce the amount of time spent traveling. So when our teacher asked my class to vote on if we wanted to "use car pooling" for our first grade field trip, I enthusiastically raised my hand. I remember asking the chaperone (a classmate's mom) when we were going to go underwater several times. I think I spent at least a half hour staring out the window, looking for any nearby bodies of water.

Anon

I used to believe that the lane divider reflector bumps in the road were to alert blind people when they were changing lanes.

Nonny

When I was young, I was always confused about how, at night, the car-lights on one side of the road were always red, while the ones in the other one were white. It never occured to me that the cars were going in different directions, and for years I was convinced that there were designated "white-light" and "red-light" lanes. But it always confused me that we were always in the "red-light" lane, since I had seen the white front headlights once when my mom was pulling into the garage. I rationalized that the lights change color as you are pulling into your garage.

confused as a child

When I was young (5-6) I was terrifed of going to the automobile repair shop. I had heard people refer to them as "THE BODY SHOP" and I was positive that no good could come of going to a place that stored dead bodies.

theshoppe

When I was a kid I used to think the "carpool lane" was an actual pool cars went swimming in

skeez

When I was younger I heard my parents talking about our car and they said that the engine was doing backflips, and that it wouldn't turn over. For years I believed that the engine was actually doing Backflips and that it was supposed to turn over. I now know I was wrong(:

Sydney

Once, I was with my older cousin and my uncle and we were driving around in his car and then my uncle said we'd get a car wash. After we got the car wash (and we were still in the car) my cousin and uncle convinced me that the car wash we went to was one that changed the colour of your car and I firmly believed it. When we got out of the car, they told the colour was worn off and the car had gone back to its old colour and for many years all the way to almost high school, I believed that there were car washes where you could select a new temporary colour for your car and would always asked my confused dad if we could go to one.

S

My Dad convinced me that the button on the top of the emergency brake in the car, if pressed, would eject him from the car through the roof, and leave me in danger in a car with no Daddy driving it. I guess this kept me from pressing it, but its a good thing I never got angry with him.

Anon

When I was little driving in the car with my father, I almost pulled up the emergency brake. He told me that it was the lever for the ejector seat and if I pulled it I would be thrown from the car. I believed this until I started driving.

Angel

When I was child I believed that all of those buildings labelled "Body Shop" were places adults could go to trade in their used-up bodies. And they were very popular, judging by the number of cars that always surrounded them!

Anon

When I was about 5 or 6 my mum and I got in a car wreck when the wheel slipped on a sheet of ice. We did 1 or 2 360s that my mum called donuts later when she was explaining to the family what happened. So, for years when I would tell the story I would tell everyone that one time my mum and I got into a wreck because we slipped on a donut that was left on the side of the road. My mum still picks on me for it.

Nicole(Granola)

When I was four I used to think that the picture and place on the side of a U-Haul truck (you know how the U-Hauls always have the name of some state and a picture relating to said state painted on the side) was where that person was moving to. I would watch the U-Hauls in my neighborhood to see where the people were moving.

I often developed an obsession with places I saw on TV or in my various learning...Egypt, the jungle, the desert...and I kept trying to convince my parents to move there. They'd been talking about moving for a long time and I had a plan that when we DID move, I would change the words on the side of the U-Haul to say "JUNGLE" or "EGYPT" instead of the place we were actually moving to, so then WE'D BE FORCED TO MOVE THERE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

We didn't actually move until I was 11, and not even out-of-state much less out-of-country xD I still don't know if the pictures on the U-Haul mean that's where you're moving to but I don't care anymore lulz I don't wanna leave tha country anymore

KUPO!!!!

I used to think that the second exhaust pipe on certain cars was for the sick to flow out of when somebody had vomited in the car. Don't ask me how the sick reached the pipe!

Tomethy

When my sisters and I were all young, my parents would drive at night when we travelled, so we'd all sleep and probably make it a less stressful trip for our parents! I was the youngest and would always be in the front seat between my parents. If I'd wake up, my dad would tell me to keep an eye on "Jim Beam". Jim Beam was a little light that hid in the dashboard when another car approached. After the car passed, he'd light up again! I would be fascinated for long periods of time and would try to convince Jim Beam that another car on the road wouldn't hurt him! Later in life, my parents would crack up telling everyone the story about my fascination with "Jim Beam" (the dimmer for headlights).

Terri

I used to believe that my parents drove the car like a plane - push on the steering wheel to go faster, pull to go slower

Anon

When I was a little girl and we were driving in the car, I always thought the signs in the residential areas that read "speed radar controlled" meant that my dad couldn't drive any faster than the speed limit because his car was controlled by a radar beam!

Noelle

I used to think that ducks lived under bridges as whenever we drove under a bridge my mum and nan would shout "DUCK!"

Later, after I had realised, I thought that you would hurt your head if you didn't duck down.

Beccie Boo

I had been at a low rider hydraulic car show when I was about 7 and I had noticed that all of the car badges were written in Italics. I then connected the two together and assumed that in order for a car to have hydraulics, the name had to be written in italics and any car that had italics, had to have hydraulics.

willow

I used to think that gas was drilled like oil. "How lucky that two gas stations across the street found a well!" My 5-year old brain thought.

When I was 7 or so, I finally saw a tanker truck unloading gas at a station. I asked my dad about this strange occurrence...who informed me that gas stations had underground storage tanks. Mind Blown!

Silly Girl