I must have been very young since I was just learning the alphabet but when I was singing "h-i-j-k-l-amenno-p I couldn’t conceptualize the “menno” letter. I remember asking my mom what a menno was. She was confused until I sang it to her…
I was very confused by the US having a Silver War because I couldn’t figure out who we were warring with. Civil War. Duh.
(Though it doesn’t appear that it was any more civil than other wars.;))
Johnny, my brother made your 3rd mistake. He was older than 5, though.
Edited due to miscounting.
‘Jacqueline Hyde’?
Ib ah shedah.
As in, ib ah shedah before I awake.
I was really young, and it was a good thing not to dwell on my mortality.
My parents had a tape recording of me reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when I was three. Our nation was 'indibibbible…
“Farn” sounds like West Virginian accent.
Can someone please tell me what “farn” is anyway?
You are ‘farn’ for sure, Cannuck!
Or, imagine GW Bush saying …
foreign
I corrected myself above you. I was referring to “super salad”.
Really?
Yes. Navy brat.
.
Oh. Thanks.
OK. Not me, but my brother.
My brother was writing a thank-you letter for a birthday present he received from an aunt who was going to be visiting for Thanksgiving. He wanted to mention that he couldn’t wait to see her. He asked, "How do you spell “Thanksgiving? F…A…”. He was 5 (and much more literate than I, then and now).
excavating (for a mind)
I suppose that’s how Mrs. Fowler would say it, if she were still alive.
Looks like USCDiver has covered that one.
My Dad was the one who would always holler “up and at 'em!” to rouse us in the mornings. I took it in as “Up and Atom” myself. Never did ask Dad what atoms had to do with it.
I, too, elided ‘several’ with ‘seven.’ Even though I asked my dad about that at a fairly early age, I never have been able to completely break that association.
FWIW, in answer to my questions, my dad said ‘a few’ was three or four, and that ‘several’ was anywhere from five to nine. I’d say the actual meaning of both these terms is a bit looser than that, but it’s a good starting point.
And of course, when we’re talking about time, rather than things that come in discrete packages (e.g. “I’ve got a couple of books to pick up at the library, we’ll leave in just a couple of minutes”) things get blurrier still.
In my first year of collecting baseball cards (1971), Topps had a series of cards featuring each team’s new players, calling them “Rookie Stars”. In my 7-year-old brain, I thought that any first-year player was a rookie star. I’m told that was my first question about any player: Is he a rookie star?
My father worked for a company that provided service to various news organizations, and when Eisenhower was in office he would often be assigned to cover an event at the Eisenhower Farm in Gettysburg PA. I was about 5 or so and was told that he had gone to Gettysburg, which to me sounded like he had gone to “get his burg.” One day I said to my mother that a “burg” must be hard to get, since he always went to “get his burg” but never returned with one. This was met with great amusement in our household, and when my father returned my mom told him about it. I asked him if he got his “burg,” and he said “I got one, but then it flew right out of my hand.” He was quite the jokester.
One time I drew a picture of a lady I had seen on TV. When asked who it was I said it was a picture of “Antja.” When asked who Antja was, I replied that it was “Antja Mima.” I remember this incident quite clearly. I must have been a weird kid.
I thought we were “gorilla fighting” in Viet Nam. Fighting actual gorillas, which makes sense, as the place is a jungle.
I was grown up before I read the phrase “guerilla fighting.”