the car phenomenon

when i was little and my parents were driving, i'd pretend there was a man/being/thing running alongside the car who had to follow certain rules like “he can only travel by jumping from streetlight to streetlight” or “he can only walk on fences” or "he can't touch the ground"

i was so surprised to find out that other people did similar things.

i wonder what the underlying psychology behind it is..

its a really specific thing to do but almost everyone did it without telling other kids about it because we all thought it was probably weird or unimportant.

did anyone else do this sort of thing?

 

didn't you already answer this question?


i always just imagined it was myself. either on foot, or occasionally a small motorized vehicle. no special rules, just basically speeding along outside (usually) my school bus, doing what would eventually become known as parkour.


and yeah, i have no idea what the psychological source of this could be.

 

I never did that. I just played games with my older sister like counting animals and by the end of the trip whoever counted the most animals on their side of the car won. Or I would fall asleep.

 

I never did that...

 

i think it's some kind of OCD thing, i am not kidding. no offense. it's an underlying anxiety issue, even children can have this.

 

I did that, but it was a Velociraptor, though I did not make up any particular rules.

Also, during training for cross-country running in high school, in order to make myself run better, I would pretend that there was a monster chasing me and that it would get me if I stopped to walk. The one rule where the monster could not get me was when I came across a red light where I had to cross the street.

I believe it is simply an over-active imagination phenomenon. It has certainly helped in my writing as it carried over into my adult life. Heck, even Stephen King admitted to nightly looking under his bed for monsters before going to sleep.

 

whoa....freaky...we both posted at the exact same time, which means we were typing at the exact same time, too. coincidence? .....hmm.....naw. conspiracy...hmm. naw.....funny...yeah.

 

Shit happens...

 

Maybe the same boogen is after you all perhaps you should run like now run little children run like you have never run before he's going to jump out from behind the fence and kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i totally did that too

 

i did that but i think i imagined it was me on a bike or a motorcycle or something (edit, like a skateboard, thanks broony). there weren't rules, but i did tricks, like jumping the curb and doing flips off stuff.

another one i played (from the front seat this time) was finding a speck of bug guts or bird shit on the windshield...winking with one eye to position it in the driving lane, and moving my head to keep it there.

pretty sweet game
i probably didn't need to phrase any of this in past tense either

 

i use to like to watch my mom roll a booger between her thumb an pinky...and then expertly throw it out the window when the green light flashed..

 

Yep, when i was a kid i wished i was on a skateboard and i would jump the road we drive by where a stop sign was, id picture myself doing tricks and getting massive air.

The times where i was stuck in the car for 8 hours and i took off my walkman headphones because my head hurt, the only thing that made me survive such long drives was my imagination. Picturing myself grinding rail guards n such.

Good times good times.

 

I've done that but I didn't have rules. I just imagined it was a supernatural being/monster thing that was chasing the school bus or whatever. Didn't ever think much of it though.

 

how about night driving...the fucking moon is always following you!!

 

Yea I did that, funny I didn't know others did till now, weird huh

 

I did that, too.

Also, the floor is lava or there are alligator or sharks...you had to stay on the couch cushions.

 

the floor is lava

 

Has there ever been a collective title/name for this phenomenon?
I'm aware there are many variations to apply yet do still coexist under the same umbrella type of subject or experience.

 

I still do this.