Not something for me personally, but my sister was 14 and asked "is there water in a water tower?". And when we confirmed that there was, she then asked " How do they open the door at the bottom without flooding the town?"
Another one I just thought of.....it wasn't until my 20's (after college and I was substitute teaching) that you could multiple by 9's on your fingers! This blew my mind! If you don't know....hold your hands out in front of you. If you want to know what 9x3 equals hold down your third finger from the left. You will see two fingers on one side and seven on the other.....27!
@jenspeake HHHHOOLLYY MOLYYY !!!! ur a genious !!!! lolzz omggg this is cool!!!
Another one I just thought of.....it wasn't until my 20's (after college and I was substitute teaching) that you could multiple by 9's on your fingers! This blew my mind! If you don't know....hold your hands out in front of you. If you want to know what 9x3 equals hold down your third finger from the left. You will see two fingers on one side and seven on the other.....27!
Holy. Cow. I never knew this!!
These are so funny! Mine are just tame...and lame..
- Never really ever having to SPELL caterpillar...I always pronounced it calipitter..well into my mid 20s
- At a meeting at work, with vigor to convince everyone to take action, I said "...blah, blah, blah....we should nip it in the butt!" One coworker started to laugh, then they ALL started laughing. I learned right then and there that it was bud...not butt *FacePalmSoHard*
I don't really have any good ones for myself I can think of... but a conversation my husband I were having today reminded me of one of his when we were moving out this way. I think he would have been 27.
We were on our second day driving and wanted to get to Cheyenne, WY. He would not believe me on how it was pronounced, it was literally still a debate after staying there the whole night and into the drive after leaving WY. I had to explain that it was after a Native American tribe out this way. Apparently all the teachers he had in North Carolina told him to say it the way he had which sounded more like a cayenne pepper, with a CH at the beginning.
There's also a street here named after the Kootenai tribe, he still likes to say it as a joke more like it's spelled which kinda of sounds Chinese >_<
Wait . . . I'm confused. I thought Cheyenne rhymed with cayenne. My husband is 1/4 Cheyenne and that's how he prounces it.
Ok I looked this up, and maybe I mispronounce "cayenne." Lol
Is it not pronounced shy-ann?
I think it is. But maybe some people say it like "chy-inn?" I say cayenne exactly how it's spelled, and always said "shy-an"
Yeah I can't even think of how he was saying completely anymore, really it was just so far off, but yeah he was so confused when I was like it's "shy-an" he was like "It has none of those letters!?!?!"
Oh and also along those lines... my husband and I love Nintendo, so of course Mario is a favorite game of ours. He and everyone else in I met in North Carolina says it "Mary-O" and I even had to adjust while I worked in retail to saying that way because everyone was confused when I said it.
I don't really have any good ones for myself I can think of... but a conversation my husband I were having today reminded me of one of his when we were moving out this way. I think he would have been 27.
We were on our second day driving and wanted to get to Cheyenne, WY. He would not believe me on how it was pronounced, it was literally still a debate after staying there the whole night and into the drive after leaving WY. I had to explain that it was after a Native American tribe out this way. Apparently all the teachers he had in North Carolina told him to say it the way he had which sounded more like a cayenne pepper, with a CH at the beginning.
There's also a street here named after the Kootenai tribe, he still likes to say it as a joke more like it's spelled which kinda of sounds Chinese >_<
Wait . . . I'm confused. I thought Cheyenne rhymed with cayenne. My husband is 1/4 Cheyenne and that's how he prounces it.
Ok I looked this up, and maybe I mispronounce "cayenne." Lol
Is it not pronounced shy-ann?
I think it is. But maybe some people say it like "chy-inn?" I say cayenne exactly how it's spelled, and always said "shy-an"
Yeah I can't even think of how he was saying completely anymore, really it was just so far off, but yeah he was so confused when I was like it's "shy-an" he was like "It has none of those letters!?!?!"
I've always thought Cayenne pepper is like ki-Ann.
If it's not that way I've just learned something new lol. I tend to learn new things constantly but am blanking on them now. But I've loved this thread!
Yeah the pepper he wasn't confused on, that is pretty much Ki-Ann, though I swear sounding out in my head there's at least one more sound in there though.
I was 30 and had just had my 4th baby when I found out that women trim the hair "down there." As a swimmer, I always cleaned up my bikini line, but had never trimmed anything else. I just joined in on the laughing at my 32 year old friend who was finding out at the same time. I was horrified at the number of times my OB had seen down there if he was used to seeing a much more groomed environment.
When I was 17, I was a teacher's aide and sent out an email to the entire faculty of my high school about a meeting on "Wensday." You'd think the spell check would have tipped me off but I, who would later that year graduate valedictorian of my class, didn't learn until getting laughed at by all my teachers later that day that it was spelled "Wednesday." Thank God they didn't have spelling tests for college admissions.
I just realized a couple years ago that dachshund is pronounced like dox-in. I thought it was pronounced dash-hound and 'doxin' was just a sort of nickname. I'm 28.
Also, all the Jackalope stuff was cracking me up. Where I am from we have stores called Jackalope, I always new they were made up. So I didn't really think about it. Just thought they were kind of modeled after a Jack Rabbit.
No shittin way. I just learned something.... I thought the same thing as you. I'm 34. Dumbfounded.
Right? I'm so glad I am not the only one! It just dawned on me one day, as I was saying dash-hound. I felt like a total dummy for saying dash-hound in front of people. Ha ha
I never learned how to pump gas until I had my first car...at 19. I was on E and didn't realize that was something that needed to be done. THANKS MOM AND DAD!
I also didn't know milk came out of our breasts more so like a sponge and not a stream like a cow's udders. Thank god I said something to my doctor lmao she was like "no dear...." and laughed at me 3:-O
Since I'm in Oregon, I also didn't learn how to pump gas until way after when a normal person knows how. It took me driving to Washington and sitting in my car and realizing no one was going to do it for me. I had to ask the store clerk how to do it. That was embarrassing.
I was about 25 when I actually realized where the term "turkeys are done" came from when a woman nips out. It never really made sense to me I just knew what it meant. Until Thanksgiving I just happened to look in the oven as the turkey timer popped and out of my mouth flies OMG I totally get it now. I then had to explain my outburst to my grandmother haha!!
I always thought it was "Nuke warm" like as in warmed up by the microwave ... Nope... Hubby got the pleasure of correcting and teaching me its "LUKE WARM"
(1) when I was younger, we had several relatives migrate to other countries. we'd always see them off at the airport and my dad would tell me to wave goodbye at the planes when they lifted off. it wasn't until later in life that I realized other countries weren't up in the clouds. because hello, all planes were going up there!
(2) i was already in medical school when I learned that a baby's umbilical cord isn't connected to the mother's navel. heeheehee...
(3) in college, I thought the lyrics to Mandy Moore's "Someday We'll Know" started with "Mighty Mouse outside Chicago..." A friend corrected me when I was singing it out loud!! She said it's "Ninety miles outside Chicago"... Well, sorry, they sound similar! Hahahaha!
I just thought of one. When I was about 13 we played that game while driving where you'd try to find all the wood sided cars first. You'd yell out "woody" and we kept tally. Well one day i was in the car with my dad and a family friend and I was the only one who hadn't gotten one so I yelled "I need a woody!!!" Totally didn't realized what was wrong with what I had said until my dad explained it to me after he could finally breathe from laughing so hard. I've not played the game since with my family. I'll stick to punch bugs lol.
Learned just last week from my summer campers that hamburgers were cow...not ...ham...... Yes I know who doesn't know that?! I'm 31 and I just never thought about it.......... I work in a Jewish school and I'm not Jewish..... I know there's a mo pork rule and I said " huh... Hamburgers tomorrow.... But we can't eat those here" my student said why when I said she was like um, hamburgers aren't pork.......
I was married and probably 25-28 when I learned that steak didn't come from deer. Growing up my dad hunted and we always had 'deer steak'. When we went out to eat I would tell him I wanted deer steak and he would order my steak for me. To say that my country boy husband was floored when I said "but steak comes from deer" when he was explaining brisket to me is an understatement. Yea and I have been buying cuts of steak for several years in the beginning of our marriage and never thought anything of it when I went to Kroger to get steak to grill...
Oh and also along those lines... my husband and I love Nintendo, so of course Mario is a favorite game of ours. He and everyone else in I met in North Carolina says it "Mary-O" and I even had to adjust while I worked in retail to saying that way because everyone was confused when I said it.
What?! I'm from NC and have only ever pronounced it (or heard it pronounced) as Mar-i-o. Then again I'm a nerd who has played entirely too much Mario (and Zelda) in her life :P I still cringe when people assume Link is Zelda
Additionally, I've always heard/said Shy-Ann for Cheyenne.
(1) when I was younger, we had several relatives migrate to other countries. we'd always see them off at the airport and my dad would tell me to wave goodbye at the planes when they lifted off. it wasn't until later in life that I realized other countries weren't up in the clouds. because hello, all planes were going up there!
(2) i was already in medical school when I learned that a baby's umbilical cord isn't connected to the mother's navel. heeheehee...
(3) in college, I thought the lyrics to Mandy Moore's "Someday We'll Know" started with "Mighty Mouse outside Chicago..." A friend corrected me when I was singing it out loud!! She said it's "Ninety miles outside Chicago"... Well, sorry, they sound similar! Hahahaha!
Ha ha ha when I was little, I thought that when Christina Aguilera sang 'let me out' in Genie in a Bottle, that she was actually singing 'meow.' My mom and sister made so much fun of me when they realized what I was saying. Ha ha it's still an inside joke.
I have a few.
(1) when I was younger, we had several relatives migrate to other countries. we'd always see them off at the airport and my dad would tell me to wave goodbye at the planes when they lifted off. it wasn't until later in life that I realized other countries weren't up in the clouds. because hello, all planes were going up there!
(2) i was already in medical school when I learned that a baby's umbilical cord isn't connected to the mother's navel. heeheehee...
(3) in college, I thought the lyrics to Mandy Moore's "Someday We'll Know" started with "Mighty Mouse outside Chicago..." A friend corrected me when I was singing it out loud!! She said it's "Ninety miles outside Chicago"... Well, sorry, they sound similar! Hahahaha!
Ha ha ha when I was little, I thought that when Christina Aguilera sang 'let me out' in Genie in a Bottle, that she was actually singing 'meow.' My mom and sister made so much fun of me when they realized what I was saying. Ha ha it's still an inside joke.
I misread this at first and thought your mom and sister had told you she says "meow" in the song. I was about to be like, "...does she?" Glad I reread so I didn't sound silly haha
I can't think of anything I learned inappropriately old... I thankfully have always been a reader (and somewhat shy) so I never blurted out things I wasn't 100% sure about!! I have very few embarrassing moments.
I did have to tell my sister-in-law (who is 3 years younger than me, so 23 to my 26) that babies are not born with adult-sized heads. She thought your skull never grew!! This came after I was showing her 10 cm in my baby book, and saying, "So your cervix dilates to 10cm so the baby's head can come out" and she said, "but the human head is WAY bigger than that!!" I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Bless her! College-educated and in grad school for public policy, but she'd never really been around babies!
@michellelynn6 Ohhhh I'm so glad we don't birth children with adult sized heads! Poor girl must have been petrified about the prospect of birthing. Gah! Though I have seen some babies with really large heads that definitely make me worry a bit. Ha ha
@michellelynn6 Ohhhh I'm so glad we don't birth children with adult sized heads! Poor girl must have been petrified about the prospect of birthing. Gah! Though I have seen some babies with really large heads that definitely make me worry a bit. Ha ha
Oh god, me too! So glad! She told me later she honestly wondered why I was so calm about giving birth!! I hope I helped her not be so scared to have her own lol
One that wasn't me but something I was asked. I was pregnant my senior year of high school and one day I had a study hall instead of my class. We ended up all mixed in with the normal study hall and the aide wasn't very attentive so she let us talk and do practically what we wanted. I had a girl (a junior) asking me pregnancy question, which wasn't a big deal. But then she asked me "if I swallow cum I can get pregnant right? And doesn't that mess with the baby once you are pregnant??" She was so dead serious I had to try not to laugh thinking it was a joke. I had to explain to her that the baby is in your uterus, the stomach and the uterus are not the same thing, all about how getting pregnant actually works, and that swallowing is really no different than eating food. I felt so bad for that girl
Oh and also along those lines... my husband and I love Nintendo, so of course Mario is a favorite game of ours. He and everyone else in I met in North Carolina says it "Mary-O" and I even had to adjust while I worked in retail to saying that way because everyone was confused when I said it.
What?! I'm from NC and have only ever pronounced it (or heard it pronounced) as Mar-i-o. Then again I'm a nerd who has played entirely too much Mario (and Zelda) in her life :P I still cringe when people assume Link is Zelda
Additionally, I've always heard/said Shy-Ann for Cheyenne.
I live in SC, but right on the NC line, and have also never pronounced in mary-o....I say Mar-e-o. The only time I've ever heard it pronounced mary-o was when I taught a student with the name Mario and his family pronounced it that way. They had recently moved to SC from upstate New York though, so I just assumed it was a difference in accents.
Re: Things you learned at an inappropriately old age (stolen from another board)
@jenspeake HHHHOOLLYY MOLYYY !!!! ur a genious !!!! lolzz omggg this is cool!!!
I've also said nip it in the butt! oopps!
I've always thought Cayenne pepper is like ki-Ann.
If it's not that way I've just learned something new lol. I tend to learn new things constantly but am blanking on them now. But I've loved this thread!
I always just say doxie or weiner dog... Hahaha.
(1) when I was younger, we had several relatives migrate to other countries. we'd always see them off at the airport and my dad would tell me to wave goodbye at the planes when they lifted off. it wasn't until later in life that I realized other countries weren't up in the clouds. because hello, all planes were going up there!
(2) i was already in medical school when I learned that a baby's umbilical cord isn't connected to the mother's navel. heeheehee...
(3) in college, I thought the lyrics to Mandy Moore's "Someday We'll Know" started with "Mighty Mouse outside Chicago..." A friend corrected me when I was singing it out loud!! She said it's "Ninety miles outside Chicago"... Well, sorry, they sound similar! Hahahaha!
I live in SC, but right on the NC line, and have also never pronounced in mary-o....I say Mar-e-o. The only time I've ever heard it pronounced mary-o was when I taught a student with the name Mario and his family pronounced it that way. They had recently moved to SC from upstate New York though, so I just assumed it was a difference in accents.