road signs

When I was just learning how to read larger words, we always passed a road sign that read "Pavement Narrows" I kept looking for Indians because I thought it said "Primitive Arrows"

See no Native Americans

When I used to see the sign 'police accident' I thought it meant that a police car had crashed.

Anon

driving with my father when I was six, he said " I have been driving down this road ten years and have never seen a yied cross this street" for years when I saw a yield crossing sign, I looked at both sides of the road for one to jump out.

Al

I used to think that you had to stop at a stop sign and count to five, and then you could keep going. it never occured to me that you had to look for other cars...but then, i was very young.

henrybird

I used to believe that the road sign "Slow Children Ahead" meant that there were mentally challenged children living in the neighborhood.

Jayne

Having seen enough red octagonal STOP signs in my time, I used to look out for green circular GO signs.

Gary

When I was little we used to drive by a Dead End sign frequently. I used to think that that was the place you take your dead animals and I could just imagine that at the end of this road there were just piles and piles of dead cats and dogs.

Eva

When I was young and riding in the car with my parents I would see signs at the beginning of streets that said "No Outlet". I used to wonder how the people lived on the streets without electricy.

David B.

When I was a kid and learning how to read about 5 or 6 years old. I remember being in the backseat (without a seatbelt or car seat or booster seat) and getting REALLY scared because my Dad kept passing signs that said "Do Not Pass." I really thought that you weren't supposed drive past that spot.

Marci

I used to believe that the solid double yellow lines on highways were the motorcycle lane.

jeech

When I was younger I used to believe that if I went on a boat and it sank only the cars would sink and we'd be happily sitting on the top deck when the bottom of the ship would be on the ocean floor.

Anon

Before I could really read, a "Fire House" sign was misinterpreted as "Free House". I never thought about it again until Middle school, and realized it wasn't for poor people to live in.

Anon

In some places in America, they have an 'End Construction' sign to let drivers know that it was the end of the stretch of roadwork. When I was a child, I thought it meant that they were constructing an end to the road somewhere down the line. I always wanted my parents to keep driving until we could see where they were building the end of the road, but to my frustation,they never seemed to know what I meant.

It took an embarassingly long time for me to figure out what it really meant - but that was probably helped by the fact the road department never got around to taking to sign down for several months after the roadwork was finished.

Anon

The State Bump

When we were kids, we went on lots of car trips. Whenever we crossed a state line, Dad would say "here comes the state bump!" This was the little bump in the highway caused by the fact that each state's highway contruction crews' work never quite joined up perfectly. And he was right--within a couple of yards of the "Welcome to..." sign there was always a little bump.

Of course, there's a little bump every couple of yards on practically every highway in the world. But it sounded so plausible!

The hilarious part is that my sister believed this until she was in her TWENTIES!

Mike B

When I was younger, my dad was a truck driver. He liked to joke with me a lot, and unfortunately, I didn't always know when he was joking. One day while on a road trip I saw a "Runaway Lane" for trucks. I asked my dad what it was and, being mean, he told me that Runaway Lanes were for truck drivers whose truck was going to explode. They could go up the Runaway Lane, jump out, land on cushions, and their truck would roll back down the lane and kill whomever was unfortunate enough to be driving behind him on the road. But hey, at least truck drivers like him would go home safely each night. I believed this for YEARS- much longer than I should have. I think I was 15 before I realized that wasn't true!

Anon

When I was just starting to read I remember believing the "pass with care" signs said "pass white car"-- I even told my parents to never buy a white car or we'll be passed all the time. They never made the connection.

Anon

when I was younger (I am still a child as I am only 17 now), I thought that the "do not pass" signs meant you couldn't move past the sign. It always upset me because I thought my parents were breaking the law.
I thought this until I read the drivers manual at age 14.

Marie

I grew up in South Africa. Road names are marked as R10 or R60 etc. The currency in South Africa is the Rand (note the capital R), so I believed that the R10 or R60 signs I saw along the road, was the amount of the fine you would get if you were speeding on that road.

Natasja

I never understood the "wrong way" signs on roads. How could they possibly know you were going the wrong way if they didn't know what your destination was?

Alex319

When I was in elementary school, (before I knew the concept of so many feet equaled a mile), I always thought that a mile was the distance between 2 road signs. So, when I figured this out I thought I must be traveling lots of miles, even though I was only going to school.

Michele