Childhood Misunderstandings

I was thinking back and had to laugh at a couple of my childhood misunderstadings.

1. Organ Donors - My mother sat the family down one day and told us that she had decided she wanted to become an organ donor. I didn't understand the whole concept and lived in terror for weeks that someone was just going to come knocking on the door and take away mom's organs. She later explained to me that she would have to die from an accident or illness first and that they wouldn't be taking her organs while she still needed them.

2. Daylight Savings Time - I grew up in Indiana which does not have DST except for one little corner with a lot of commuters to Chicago. The tv station feed keeps up with DST which means that a show that was on a 7 pm would then come on at 8 pm. I didn't know what DST was and never heard of it so I thought the tv stations knew that people played outside longer and would miss their shows. By showing everything an hour later, people could still play outside and catch the show they wanted to see.

What weird or strange childhood misunderstandings do you laugh at today?

I can think of a few misunderstandings my boys had when they were little. One couldn't wait to go to San Francisco and visit the, "Fisherman's Dwarf". My older boy couldn't understand how King Kong could climb the "Entire Snake Building." My fav has to be one Halloween when my younger boy, after watching "Star Wars" wanted to dress as the "Dark Evader"............ Great topic. 42

following RG on the misquoted Christmas songs I thought for the longest time that the lyric from "Walking in a winter wonderland" was later on we'll perspire as we dream by the fire... it makes sense!

I remember being very young and thinking the people on TV were actually inside the TV.

Most of my misunderstandings came from misspellings.. (yeah.. helps when English is your second language )

"Jose can you see.. " (Star Spangled Banner - song)

"Bald headed woman" (More than a woman - song)

When someone was in a "comatose" state - I thought they meant they were in "Acoma" (as if it were one word)

The old Girls Scouts of New Jersey icon (map of New Jersey isolated by itself) that was shown on TV - I thought it was a silloette (er.. spelling again) of an old lady.. look at it.. it's STILL an old lady to me :yes:

I am always surprised at the thing we were familiar with as children that kids today have no idea about. For example Christmas Carols. When I was in elementary school there were elaborate Christmas pageants every year that we worked on for weeks. Also back then it seemed like all of the kids attended Sunday school. So, from either school or Sunday school children knew most of the Christmas Carols. The first year I had a Brownie troop we were preparing the girls to go caroling at a local nursing home. The only songs these girls knew were Rudolph, Jingle Bells, parts of The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Frosty. I was shocked. Prior to the next meeting I made each of them song books with all of the usual carols. We started with Away In a Manger. I played a recording, my assistant leaders and I sang it, still nothing from the girls. Finally one raised her hand and said "Miss Patti we just don't like that country music!" So we moved on to Silent Night (I thought EVERYONE would have at least heard Silent Night before). Again we listened to the recording, sang it for them, then with them. One of the older girls (third grade) wanted to know if we could make it an action song so it would be "more fun". At this point I was willing to do anything to teach these songs. The little girl came forward to lead the song and teach her motions. When it came to "round yon Virgin" she told them to put their hands over their mouths and YAWN. One of the others then asked "how come we have to yawn for the Virgin?" and before I could jump in and turn the conversation around another of the girls piped in and said "my sister says being a virgin is boring maybe that's why she yawns". The nursing home really seemed to appreciate hearing Rudolph, Jingle Bells, Frosty, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.

When my son was 4, he thought that when he grew up and got married, he and his wife would still live with my husband and me. I told him that most people lived in their own houses when they got married, and visited their parents. He got very worried, and asked "But what if my wife and I find a house we like, and somebody already lives there?" I had to explain to him about Realtors...

Clarice said:

When my son was 4, he thought that when he grew up and got married, he and his wife would still live with my husband and me. I told him that most people lived in their own houses when they got married, and visited their parents. He got very worried, and asked "But what if my wife and I find a house we like, and somebody already lives there?" I had to explain to him about Realtors...

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that is too cute!! my mom's best friend's grandson is going to be moving to Vegas soon and he can't get it in his head that "grammy" is not moving with them... little kids are too cute!


welcome to the board, Clarice!

marymotormouth said:

I remember being very young and thinking the people on TV were actually inside the TV.

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My sister thought this too; she even used to say that if we broke the screen, the people would come right into our living room.

Clarice said:

He got very worried, and asked "But what if my wife and I find a house we like, and somebody already lives there?" I had to explain to him about Realtors...

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Not to change the subject, but that reminds me of that hysterical real estate commercial I've seen lately where the family comes into this house and says, "We've looked at thousands of houses and this one's the one we want!" and the owners are dumbfounded and say, "But it's not for sale!" and the parents laugh and say, "Kids, go pick out your rooms!" followed by, "We should have them over for dinner. Do you like fish?" Has me in stitches!

LOL, what a great thread. I used to sing the wrong lyrics to songs all of the time when I was younger. My mother's favorite was from that song that said "Everytime you go away, you take a piece of me with you." I always thought it said "Everytime you go away, you take a piece of meat with you." When my mother caught me singing it, she asked why in heaven's name would I think that. I explained that if someone were going on a trip it would only make sense that they would take food with them.

Piel said:

One of the others then asked "how come we have to yawn for the Virgin?" and before I could jump in and turn the conversation around another of the girls piped in and said "my sister says being a virgin is boring maybe that's why she yawns".

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THAT IS ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!!

I remember the big news story when I was about 6 or 7 was Watergate, Watergate, Watergate. At the very least I must have picked up on the fact, at some point, that at least Watergate was some kind of building, but beyond that -- what I thought the deal was, the building flooded out (hence the name) and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why all these people were getting into so much trouble over a building getting flooded out. Every time I heard the word Watergate I pictured hallways with waist-deep water and 3-foot swells and everything.

A little later on, until I actually saw it written, I thought that the "Nervous System" was actually the "Nerva System". (If I had that same misconception these days, I would probably also assume it was some kind of Skin Care or Weight Loss System as seen in infomercials). This was a variation of my later misunderstanding involving CBS (?) newsman Garrick Utley, who I always assumed was named Gara Cutley. (I think I held onto that one until I was in my 20s)....

When I first heard the term euthanasia I thought it was youth in Asia. After being hired for my first job personnel was going over all of the various forms with a large group of us. When it came to filling out the forms for savings bonds we had to add the beneficiary information. The personnel person told us to just write what I thought was "my state". Wanting to be precise I wrote The State of WV. Someone called me a few days later to make sure the information was correct. I was so embarrassed to find out that what had been said was "my estate". Maybe they should include a hearing test with that premployment physical?

When I was little instead of thinking that the crochet-ed blankets my aunt made were "afgans" but whenever mom would say "go get under an afgan" I thought she said "go get under a nafgan"

My famous misunderstanding (song lyric) was the Beatles "Give Peace a Chance" I thought it was "All we are saying is give hippies a chance."

My nephew used to sing "Do -Ray-Me" from the "Sound of Music" and said instead of "T a drink with jam and bread" - "T a drink with Janet Red."

When my sister was younger she thought the words to Joy to the World was George to the World. At Christmas mass, my family was in falling down hysterics while singing Joy to the World and Jeannie singing George to the World. To this day, not in public, we all sing George to the World.

Dee