cars

When I was little my mom used to tell my younger brother and me that the car wouldn't start or go unless we had our seatbelts on. We believed this up until we were like 10 or 11. Fortunately though it always keeps us wearing seatbelts even when 15 years later we are now driving.

Belted in for safety

i thought that the toll booths on the interstate when it said manual or automatic it meant that if you had an automatic car you had to go through that one and if you had a stick you had to go through manual.

Anon

You know how when you look at a map, all the countries and states are dvided by dotted white lines? I thought that we always drove on the right because the left was a different state, not ours!

Heather

I still cannot come up with a reason why I believed this, but when I was little, I was convinced that it was illegal for children to ride in a car. So, one day, I solemnly promised my mom that if we were pulled over by the police, I would hide under the seats so the police couldn't see me. She stared at me in utter disbelief.

Anon

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...

Wishful thinking

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.

Haikitay

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.

Anon

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.

Anon

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...

silverstar1809

i didn't know what slug bugs were. so when people hit me when one went by, i thought they were going to hit me with a sluggish bug.

ha.

sarah

When I was little I always saw the little note on the mirror in the car on the side that says, " Things that are in the mirror are closer than they appear" so i asked my big cousins what it meant and they said it was a joke...so I belived that for years

Candie

Ever since I was a toddler, my family was fond of Toyotas. We've gone through a few cars since then, but one of my best memories was about our Oldsmobile when I was around 3 years of age. Whenever we went on trips, I'd marvel at all the cars that went faster and passed us, or were stuck behind us because I thought that our car only had one speed it could go on the highway, and that was it. I'd snicker at the cars that were slower and forever stuck behind us, and sulk whenever other cars whizzed by. It never occured to me that all the vehicles -- us included! -- had gas pedals and brakes!

Anon

when I was little, I never understood how my parents knew how to drive to everywhere. I thought that it was unusual that they never got lost, even on long trips. So I assumes that since you need a lisence to drive, and my parents never got lost when they drove, that the lisence had a map on the back of it that told you wherever you needed to go, so you would never get lost.

Only later did I fugure out that my parents knew where they were going becasue they got very good directions, or had already been where they were going.

Mysticfett

I used to believe, while driving in a car, that we actually didn't move anywhere but the road and surroundings did!

R

When I was younger, part of my family lived in thise old town that had mainly brick roads. My brother told me when I was about 4 that the brickroads were hollow. I've always pictured.. like a big ol' sewer system. Anyway, I was smart enough to know that cars were heavy ol things.. but i wasn't smart enough to not believe my brother.
I used to sit in the back seat with my eyes clentched and tears streaming down my face.. When I told my parents.. they just laughed..

Well, now I am 31.. and I am smart enough to know my brother was full of crap.. but i still have panic attacks, and start to tear up when driving over them.. Not to mention I speed like crazy down them!

~Storm

My brother told me that if you press the button on the handbreak in the car when the car was off the car would explode. I thought this was pretty cool and thought i would give it a try. Didn't work, though. Wonder why.

Anon

When i was little, I used to want to live in a motorhome so badly when I grew up... it's so functional, a car and home in one! I thought it was the ultimate cool. I didn't take into account that I'd be lacking address, sewage, a landline phone, etc etc.

Sally

I used to think that after you passed an off-ramp while driving on the freeeway, it disappeared.

Anonymous

When I was 3, I used to believe that motorways were big conveyor belts because why would everyone on a motorway agree to drive fast? Let’s just say, I wasn’t the smartest kid.

Jan

When I was young my grampa would always tell us to duck when going underneath a bridge, in the car, or we would bump our heads. Also, to hold our breath when going through a tunnle because the air was bad. Guess, he thought it was funny.

Kel Kel