How I Thought Streetlights Worked When I was a Kid

I assumed that turn signals were programmed by a monkey who lived under the hood of your car. They found out where you were going from an alligator who listened outside your window to find out where you were headed. Obviously it had to be an alligator because their slim form fits perfectly under the car. And a monkey has thumbs so no one else could program the turn signals.

See, this is why I'm opposed to replacing sodium-vapor street lights with LEDs. They're taking away the gnomes' homes and livelihoods!

I imagine it like those medieval warning tower lights that signal an invasion is occurring.

when i was a kid & my mumm drove me to daycare, we would always pass the firefighter station & if the garage was open we'd cheer The Firetrucks Are Awake! and if the garage was closed we'd cheer The FireTrucks Are Asleep…

And this goes into the world building project.

Those last two are sleeping on the job!

Anyone else remember the streetlight gnome strike of '94?

I used to think that street lights were manually controlled by people in nearby unseen monitoring buildings with cameras looking at the road so they could determine when the lights needed to change

The comments make me think I was the only kid who didnt believe in insane shit lmao

I don't know what I expected, but it was not this.

Like a Discworld camera, with a little imp inside drawing the pictures.

This is ridiculous. Everyone knows they had access to phones.

IT ISN’T?!?! great now my night is ruined

I thought that stoplights were manned by gnomes running bicycle generators

I mean, I thought that when actor got shot or stabbed on tv they got shot or stabbed for real. Like, Inthought all these actors on prime time tv were just really deducated to thier craft? I guess.

Don't just call the computer system out like that.

I miss when my brain worked this way

I did not understand from this that they were inside the street lights, but everyone else seemed to.

When he said it would be a long night, I thought they had to turn each one on with a pullstring, but then they stopped at two.

This is very endearing

Took me a few times to realize those were meant to be gnomes living inside the lights. lol

I mean how else would it work

That's ridiculous. Even as a kid I knew that street lights were just tubes that redirected sunlight when it went below the Earth.

You know, the string must be in tension for that communication device to work! 😉