And I thought a woman had one breast for ever child she had (a lot of couples in my parents’ generation had two kids).
I knew that when you rewound or fast forwarded a show, everyone watching was affected, so you don’t want to be rude and do it too often.
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.
Similarly, when I saw a rerun on TV, I assumed the actors were there doing it all over again, reading the lines from the same script. And when I hear a song on the radio I assumed the singer was at the station singing it all over again. Being famous must have been a very repetitive job!
I had this all figured out in spite of being very familiar with the concept of audio and video tapes.
I saw a record album with the lyrics printed inside it and I wondered about the person who had the job of listening to the songs and figuring out the words.
That was actually the original system. Intended to promote non partisanism, it only created cabinet deadlock, with presidents having their every policy opposed by the vice-president.
A co-worker of mine grew up in Mississippi. She used to believe that when playing touch football, everyone said the name of the state they were currently in while counting the “blitz count”. So, in New Jersey we would say “One New Jersey, Two New Jersey, Three New Jersey.” She figured quarterbacks in Maine must have it really rough.
I knew beyond all doubt that a car’s engine produced some kind of force like a jet or rocket that blew out of the tailpipe and pushed the car forward.
I was stumped by the mysterious ‘Exing’, but was too shy to ask what exing was. I knew it had something to do with deer, what with the DEER XING signs all over the place.
When watching a rerun of old shows, I still sort of expect the commercials to be from the same time the show originally aired. I find myself slightly disappointed when I realize they are not.
Mid-70s McDonald’s soda cups had stamped on them in smallish type PUT LITTER IN ITS PLACE. I always read it, though, as PUT LETTER IN ITS PLACE. Obviously McDonald’s was helping out the post office by reminding people to put their letters in the mailbox in front of the restaurant.
When I was a kid I thought the American Revolution was World War I, and the Civil War was World War II.
I also thought that Casey Stengel managed the Yankees in 1927, the year Babe Ruth won the World Series for the Yankees by hitting his 60th home run on the last day of the season.
My parents told me when I was little, that the sun and the moon went to China at night. So I figured there was a Sun China and a Moon China where the two heavenly bodies went until morning, when they rose again.
I knew where the appendix was, but I didn’t know anything about surgery. So I thought that if a doctor wanted to take your appendix out, he had to run a real long-handled tool down your throat to the appendix, cut it off, and take it back out through your mouth. When I actually heard about surgery–a friend of my Dad’s had hernia surgery and he had to have an incision made across his abdomen–I pictured the cut on his body and cried hard. 
A cable channel has been rerunning some old game/panel shows like What’s My Line, and including some of the original commercials. They’re kinda more interesting than the actual shows.
That was true, until like the 1800’s. Look up ‘short drop’ vs. ‘long drop’ for details.
It took me a long time to realize that countries (& US states) came in all kinds of different sizes.
Because in my geography textbook the maps of every one pretty much covered an 8-1/2 by 11" page.
I still fall into that occasionally. It’s hard to comprehend that France is a famous country, with lots of history, but is only the size if Minnesota & Wisconsin. And Germany next door isn’t much bigger – but they speak a whole different language!
You sure got that one right!
Holy shit! Are you me?
When I was about 7 or so, I thought I would grow up to be the world’s best chef. The first thing I would make would be to fry whipped cream in butter-- why hadn’t anybody thought to do that? It would be delicious! Another of my taste sensations would be malted milk cough drops.
If there was a favorite thread of the moment thread, this thread would be my selection for that thread.
Thread.
I was convinced minnow were baby trout and that my source of this knowledge was my dad. I was thoroughly embarrassed when I not only lost that discussion against a second cousin, but was told by my dad he’d never told me any such thing. I can’t remember him ever feeding me false knowledge otherwise, so I’m inclined to believe him.
Discussing with my mom when I was probably around 6 or 7 about some long forgotten minor legal dispute:
Me: “So-and-so says we’ll need a lawyer!”
Mom: “You have a lawyer, our friend X has a law firm.”
Me (internally): “God my lawyer must be bored, I don’t have a lot of legal disputes. Does he ever call to find out how I’m doing? How come I don’t see more of him?”
I thought that when you “had a lawyer” he was literally devoted to you alone.
My grandfather owned a small chain of grocery stores. When I was a kid, and we were driving around town, my mother would often point out a certain building and say, “That’s where your granddad had his first grocery store.”
She meant, of course, that the first store he owned had been in that building.
I understood her to mean that he had owned the first grocery store ever, right in that very building. Yup, that whole thing where you go to a store and buy food? Totally my grandfather’s idea! How anyone got along before that, I’ll never know. 
I thought that you paid to have a credit card. Like you paid Zellers $500 for their credit card then you could use that card in their store when you didn’t have enough cash. I was around 12 when my mom explained no, that’s not how credit cards worked. This was years before debit cards were invented.