road signs

Not mine--

My great grandfather would point out "Watch For Falling Rock" signs along the highway on family road trips. He would tell a brief story about Falling Rock, the missing/wandering Indian and that they were search signs for the public to help find him. My grandma and my three great aunts used to watch for Falling Rock on their road trips. And no one ever fought the whole trip, just silence.

Sara

I used to believe that the PASS WITH CARE signs on the side of the road meant you were supposed to care about what you were driving past right then.

bananabutt

A friend of mine told me that when she was little, she thought that the signs that say "no dumping" meant that people were not allowed to "take a dump" at that particular location. She wondered why people would want to take a dump outside in the first place.

Sara

When I was little, I thought the road signs that say "No Outlet" meant that there was no electricity on that road.

Brigitte

Traveling with my parents, we became lost. My Dad was looking for a fork in the road, where he would turn. He couldn't find it. Though I thought it odd, I kept looking out my window for a fork (stainless steel) planted in the middle of the asphalt road.

Kathy

I used to beleive that the sighting poles and crosses used in motorway construction sites were actually the hastily dug graves of the poor workers who had died creating the transport system!

Rockman

When I was a kid, we visited Italy once. I noticed that in every city we visited, there were signs pointing to "Senso Unico", which I surmised must be some important building each city had, like a city hall. It never dawned on me to ask my parents what it was. So at one point we were in some small city in Tuscany, and my parents decided to hang around in a cafe, so my sister and I decided to go exploring the town. We took it upon ourselves to go and find the Senso Unico. The signs showing the way to the Senso Unico seemed to lead us all over the place, and eventually we ended up where we started. We gave up.

When we got back, we told our parents about the failed quest. It was then that we learned "Senso Unico" is Italian for "One Way"!

Kdees

My mom told me that the falling rock signs were where an Indian named "falling rock" was seen and if you looked for him he would push rocks onto your car

Anon

They were building a new road and round-a-bout near our house when I was little. I asked my dad when they were going to put the horses on. Having not had a car so not much experience with round-a-bouts my 4 year old self was convinced they were randomly place fairground carousels.

Baggins

I used to think "Yield" signs read "Yelled", so I thought that they were there to show where someone had once yelled at something.

Matt

When I was 3 and just learning about words and reading, I noticed a sign on the road to our house that said "Speed Checked by Radar." I thought it said "Speed Chicken" and I used to love to picture this giant chicken running up and down the highway telling people to slow down.

Sue

When I saw signs on the road that said "Commercial Vehicles Only", I used to think (when I was younger) that only vehicles that were shown on TV could go down that certain exit/road.

Anon

when i was learning to read i used to think that PASS WITH CARE signs said PASS WITH CAR and there was a sidewalk by the road. i thought that to pass that sign you had to take your car with you. i thought that to go for a walk on the sidewalk you had to pull your car with a rope to pass the sign on the sidewalk

kk

When I was younger I used to believe that the signs that said "No Outlet" meant that all the houses down that street had no electrical outlets or electricity. I remember looking at the houses and thinking "Wow, that's a pretty house, too bad it doesn't have electricity." I always used to wonder why anyone would want to live on those streets.

C.C.

I was taking my first trip to Florida without any adults. As I crossed the Kentucky/Tennessee line I noticed a sign that said "Be Alert, Arrive Unhurt," with a picture of a bee. I turned to my friend and asked, "Do they have a bee problem in Tennessee?" Needless to say, my friend had to pull over because of hysterical laughing and I had no clue that the sign just meant to be careful!

anonymous, because I wasn

I thought that the "No Passing" sign on a road meant you weren't allow to drive past the sign, and I thought everyone was breaking the law.

Randi

I once asked my father why there were curve signs along the roadside when you could already see the curve. My father replied "those are for blind people." Nearly a year later when learning disabled in school after the teacher was explaining what Brail was, I raised my had to ask, "why don't they just make words the same colors as those signs on the side of the road."

Anon

I used to believe that the road signs that pointed up to indicate forward moving traffic were signs intended for airplanes. Naturally, since the sign pointed up, it meant for airplanes to fly up.

Anon

When I saw speed camera signs on the roads I always thought we had entered a zone where we could take pictures!

Anon

I thought the “Slippery When Wet” traffic sign was a car that had grown long bendy legs.

Anon