# Stuff you thought you had figured out as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642 "2016-09-23T14:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/121 "2016-11-02T21:07:25Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > This is bizarre, but it just occurred to me that there was a brief period where I believed that there were tiny people in our car radio who played music, talked about the news and read advertisements. I never thought that, but I did think the singers were in the local radio station, performing their song. I asked my dad why we couldn’t go to the radio station and see if they’d let us in to see The Beatles, and he said they weren’t there, it was only a record. I guess I was five at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Anglachel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Anglachel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anglachel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/122 "2016-11-03T19:30:03Z")
When I was young I remember hearing about guerrillas fighting in wars on the news. Of course in my imagination, it was gorillas wearing uniforms fighting against people, which kind of freaked me out. Much more recently my family and I were driving during a thunderstorm. My wife and I would point out transformers being hit by lightning by saying “did you see that transformer pop?”. My daughter was looking excitedly out the window, but said she never saw it. A few days later she confessed that she thought we were seeing Transformers (shape shifting robots like in the movie). ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/123 "2016-11-03T19:48:03Z")
When I was a kid, I thought the purpose of salt was to cool of the hot food on the dinner plate. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/124 "2016-11-03T22:12:15Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I never thought that, but I did think the singers were in the local radio station, performing their song. I asked my dad why we couldn’t go to the radio station and see if they’d let us in to see The Beatles, and he said they weren’t there, it was only a record. I guess I was five at the time. And I thought that a “tune-up” was to make sure that the music played on your car’s radio was always in tune. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/125 "2016-11-04T16:46:44Z")
When I was little and watching the news with my parents I heard “raped” as “raked” and thought there were people attacking women with rakes. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/126 "2016-11-04T17:57:21Z")
I remember running across the word “rape” before I knew the meaning of the word. I could tell it was bad, and the word was similar to “rope”, so I figured it was something like choking someone. With a rope. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642/127 "2016-11-04T18:39:27Z")
> [@Anglachel](#): > > Much more recently my family and I were driving during a thunderstorm. My wife and I would point out transformers being hit by lightning by saying “did you see that transformer pop?”. My daughter was looking excitedly out the window, but said she never saw it. A few days later she confessed that she thought we were seeing Transformers (shape shifting robots like in the movie). Oo ooo! Me too! I remember my mom explaining that a power outage at home was due to a transformer exploding. I was baffled. Why was the side effect of a power outage the most significant discussion point when talking about giant, exploding killer robots? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-thought-you-had-figured-out-as-a-child/766642.md?page=6)