traffic lights

When I was younger I believed that all traffic lights had little leprechaun type men in them that were in charge of watching the traffic to know when to change the lights from red to green and I would get upset when they didn't change "in time"; I simultaneously thought my Papa had a special relationship with these tiny people because he could point at the light and make it change to green. Every. Single. Time. I thought they looked up to him like I did :)

Cassandra Nolen

One day at age 17 I was riding in my boyfriend's car (also 17 at the time) in his neighborhood. We came to a red light on a main road that had a bright blinking white flash, and since there were none of those in my neighborhood, I asked him what it meant. He told me, "It's for the blind people who drive." I informed him that blind people don't drive, and he was startled at this burst of logic. His father had told him this story years earlier, and he had never thought to question it.

NikkNap

I thought that the "don't walk" sign at crosswalks meant to run across the street as quickly as possible!

richard

When I was a kid I thought that when a traffic light gave the signal "don't walk" it meant you ran!! How dum is that?

Anon

WHen I was a lil kid I used to always look up and see pigeons like on the traffic light post like when we were stopepd at a red light, and I thought that the pigeons follow the traffic lights laws also, lol

Anon

I used to believe that there were people in a room underneath each traffic light that were responsible for changing the lights from green to yellow to red, and then from red to green.

Karen

When I was a child, I used to believe that traffic lights were operated by a person underground who saw everything and changed their colour with a button, so he or she decided when the cars could pass and when not.

Anon

I used to believe that traffic lights in certain parts of the world had giant blades that would drop down if your car went through them after you were red. As kids we thought it was the coolest thing to imagine a red light runners car being chopped in half... Imagine if this was a law!

Jordan Moline

I used to believe that when i pushed the button to be given permission to WALK across the street that there was a little man under the road, and when i pushed the button he got electrocuted, so the more i pushed it, the quicker i got to walk.,

Mychal

i used to belive that traffic lights were my friends, and i (no one else) could talk to them, and tell them when they could turn green, and red... there was one i used to like im particular who i always talked toooo... :( but then we moved away

shell

i used to believe that traffics lights were controlled by mice watching for cars and running through the wires switching the lights for us

greg

that the green traffic light turned blue when it was off

Kriket Evens

I used to believe that there was a little person in the electrical boxes beside street lights that would change the lights at the appropriate times. If the light was taking too long to change, I would assume that they were taking a nap.

Ernie

I used to think I could change traffic lights to green.
If I knew we were in a hurry to get somewhere I would talk to the
traffic light under my breath and promise it lots of new wires if
it changed to green , and it would a lot of the time.
It was sort of cruel of me to lie to them.lol.

Anon

My father is a terrible practical joker. He inflicted his sense of humour on all 4 of his children, and, unfortunately, now on my nieces and nephews too. Amongst the things that I believed were:
That dad was a god, with magic powers. He could change traffic lights from red to green, by commanding "lights please change". Miraculously, the lights would change colour - it wasn't until i was about nine that i realised that dad was watching for the lights in the other direction to turn before his command!
He also told me that the giant bales of hay in farmers paddocks were in fact 'wild hay', a type of very shy animal that would move only when no-one was looking at it. Occasionally they were covered in a tarpolen, because they were prone to catch colds, and the farmers were worried about them. I suppose its not that unusual for a city kid like myself to believe this, but unfortunately my older sisters kids - born and bred in the country - believe this as well!
Unfortunately, my father's jokes appear to be genetic - last week i convinced my three year old niece that bread grows on trees. We spent nearly an hour hunting around the backyard for bread to have with dinner. Amazingly, we found a french stick and two rolls - that i had hidden earlier.

Rebecca H.

I used to think that police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances would have a button in their cars that when they came to a red light, they could push it and it would make the light turn green and everbody elses would turn red.

Anon

When I was six I used to believe that if you smiled at traffic lights they'd think you were nice and let you through so I always ended up telling mum and dad to smile when we stopped at one.

Anon

When I was young, I was certain that inside every single stop light, a small man was sitting and waiting for the man watching the traffic in the pole to tell him it was time to change the lights. My dad had pretty good luck with the colors and was always singing at the light so I was pretty sure they liked his singing, now I'm constantly belting a good tune when I'm waiting on a rather lengthy light to change.

Elle

I was thoroughly convinced as a child that my father could make lights change, and that occasionally, he could endow me with this ability.

We'd be at a light, and finally, he'd say, "Change, light!" and it would! Occasionally, he'd tell me to yell "CHANGE!" and it would.

Funny how I never put together that he was just watching the opposing lights to see when they went yellow. :)

Gary

I used to believe that there were green, yellow and red fairies that would stick their really big bellies into the traffic to make them change colors. The green one was the nice one that let the cars go; the yellow one was always in a hurry and so could only do her job quickly, and the red one was nasty, thus slow traffic. My mother says she used to say 'Come on traffic light fairies, make the light turn green!' when I was in the car, so that's probably where I got this theory from.

Sara