# Without saying your age, what's something from your childhood that a younger person wouldn't understand? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138 "2021-10-25T01:08:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 61
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1203 "2022-07-12T20:14:19Z")
Donating at school so the nuns could buy pagan babies and raise them as good Catholics. I often pondered how this worked, was there some pagan baby market somewhere? Mechanical cash registers with a special column of keys that were for items which cost 19 cents, 29 cents, 39 cents…99 cents. Buy that can of soup and the person at the checkout only had to hit one key (probably 19 cents!) to ring it up. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1204 "2022-07-12T21:28:11Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Donating at school so the nuns could buy pagan babies and raise them as good Catholics. They “cost” $5, and you could name them! Man, I hadn’t thought about that in years. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1205 "2022-07-12T22:12:32Z")
When was this? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1206 "2022-07-12T22:14:47Z")
Mid 1950s to late 1950s. Actually, I always thought it was pretty gross. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1207 "2022-07-12T22:17:16Z")
Oh okay. Before my time even. And in any case the nuns at my school could get killed (literally) if they tried to convert anyone or even if they tried to raise money to convert someone. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1208 "2022-07-12T22:24:58Z")
I don’t think the money was for forced conversions. We were told it was for clothes and school stuff. There were non-Catholic kids in my school, and there was no effort at all to convert them. They got to opt out of all the religious stuff, too, which made the rest of us jealous. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1209 "2022-07-13T01:11:05Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > > > Donating at school so the nuns could buy pagan babies and raise them as good Catholics. > > They “cost” $5, and you could name them! Man, I hadn’t thought about that in years. Um, could somebody explain this further? It can’t possibly mean what I’m reading it as. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1210 "2022-07-13T01:27:15Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Donating at school so the nuns could buy pagan babies and raise them as good Catholics. PAGAN BABIES! > **[Pagan Babies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206553.Pagan_Babies)** > > Pagan Babies is classic crime fiction from the master o… ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1211 "2022-07-13T01:31:06Z")
A [previous thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pagan-babies/124778) on the subject. Please note that its last post was in 2002, so any reply in it would result in zombification. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1212 "2022-07-13T02:31:34Z")
Thanks, @OttoDaFe. That does indeed explain it better. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1213 "2022-07-13T14:18:08Z")
To answer for me, there was no mention of any conversion being done when I was a kid. It was always just poor starving children. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1214 "2022-07-13T15:51:23Z")
Heh heh. I remember as my mother tried to convince me that eating the unappetizing crud she cooked somehow improved the famine conditions in Biafra. I still remember as she pointed to my dish/bowl of greasy water with fatty overcooked meat with equally overcooked colorless vegetables floating in it “_If they saw this in front of them, they would be sooo happy_”. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1215 "2022-07-13T21:27:09Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > Heh heh. I remember as my mother tried to convince me that eating the unappetizing crud she cooked somehow improved the famine conditions in Biafra. Yeah, same for me. But my mom was a good cook except for a few things (looking at you liver). The old “Eat that, people are starving in Africa” made me think “What does that have to do with this?” ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1216 "2022-07-13T22:54:40Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > But my mom was a good cook Same here. Mom was a great cook, but we had to clean our plates before we could leave the table. I never could figure out how the extra 3 bites of lima beans that I choked down were beneficial to the starving kids in China. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1217 "2022-07-13T23:57:43Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Same here. Mom was a great cook, but we had to clean our plates before we could leave the table. I never could figure out how the extra 3 bites of lima beans that I choked down were beneficial to the starving kids in China. My Wife hated green beans as a kid. Her Mom once made her eat them and (as a kid) my Wife vomited. Getting her in trouble I’m sure. Kids taste buds are different. We have to remember that. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1218 "2022-07-14T04:23:01Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > “_If they saw this in front of them, they would be sooo happy_”. My mother would do that with her vegetable beef soup my brother and I turned our noses up at, “If you were starving and came upon this in a trashcan in an alley you’d eat it with delight!” Thing was I’d picture taking a lid off a trash can to find it full and still steaming like a waist-high tureen. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1219 "2022-07-14T05:48:00Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > I remember as my mother tried to convince me that eating the unappetizing crud she cooked somehow improved the famine conditions in Biafra. > [@enipla](#): > > Eat that, people are starving in Africa” > [@Railer13](#): > > beneficial to the starving kids in China. Wherever these starving children actually were I was perfectly willing to send them my uneaten lima beans and also any future servings of lima beans that would otherwise be wasted on me. Mom was not impressed. ---
**Author:** ![EDOK9Trainer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/838e76/32.png) [@EDOK9Trainer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EDOK9Trainer)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1220 "2022-07-14T06:12:57Z")
I remember watching my Mom cry when a man name John F. Kennedy was killed. Didn’t quite understand the whole president thing though. I vividly recall the 1969 Moon landing. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1221 "2022-07-14T09:42:00Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > my mother tried to convince me that eating the unappetizing crud she cooked somehow improved the famine conditions in Biafra. I used to get either "You’ll eat what you’re given _and you’ll like it_ , or just “All the more for the rest of us; there’s bread and butter if you’d rather” ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1222 "2022-07-14T22:29:34Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Mom was a great cook, … lima beans … I’d argue that the lima beans contradict the first part of your claim :D. My mom was a perfectly competent cook (though she downplayed her skills; was she Cordon Bleu material? of course not. Nobody was!). But she liked lima beans, and served them as often as she could. Weirdly, while I like most legumes, I have always disliked lima beans. How about this for showing your age: 1. Mom made liver as often as she could. Yummmmm!!! (you are a lot older than I am) 2. Mom loved liver, and forced us to eat it. I’m so glad I grew up and moved out (you are in my generation) 3. Liver? LIVER??? EWWWWWWWWWWWW. Glad my parents never tortured me with that crap! (you are younger than I am). How about this: Data entry on keypunch machines, where you produced those manila-colored punch cards, and had to empty out a bin of the punched-out bits every day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138.md?page=60) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138.md?page=62)