Childhood misunderstandings

stickywicket
stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
edited 31. May 2017, 10:06 in Community Chit-chat archive
My mother and I used to visit my grandmother every week. Granny lived in a different city and I knew, from listening to the adults talk, that that city had circular buses.

I looked out eagerly for a circular bus every week but saw only the usual, boring rectangular ones :lol: It was very disappointing :roll:
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Steven Wright

Comments

  • Slosh
    Slosh Member Posts: 3,194
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    One Saturdays my parents and I would visit a local shopping centre for a look around the shops and lunch, this was referred to as my parents as going "Down town" and as a child of the 60s I was convinced the Petula Clarke song of the same name was about this.

    A more recent one, when I had my collar on post neck op one of my grandsons who was then 4 asked his Mum, "Why does Granny have a toilet roll round her neck?"
    He did not say you will not be storm tossed, you will not be sore distressed, you will not be work weary. He said you will not be overcome.
    Julian of Norwich
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    There's a lovely children's book by the Ahlbergs about just this subject - nightmares, clothes horse, etc.
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oooh I shall check it out. Thanks, daffy.

    Oh Slosh! Out of the mouths etc etc :lol:
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Sticky I think it's called 'The Clothes Horse and other stories' and as you would expect from that team a delight of both words and illustrations.
  • palo
    palo Member Posts: 240
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I saw a sign

    Warning - Sleeping Policemen

    I wondered why they got special treatment - I was only 23 then !!
  • littlemimmy
    littlemimmy Member Posts: 111
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Brilliant topic!

    As a child, I really thought that little Jackie Paper took ceiling wax to Puff the Magic Dragon!

    My sister thought that April Fools' Day was Opal Fruits Day, and spent all day waiting to be given some sweets!

    And, talking of sweets, my ex thought that the song\lyrics Maynard's Wine Gums used in their advert was "juice, juice, juice that moose!"
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Vocabulary is a complicated area, there's no doubt about that. Earlier this week my husband received a DL letter marked 'Important - this is not a circular' 'No, it isn't,' I said (sadly, out loud) 'It's a rectangular!' I then giggled off and on for the rest of the day. As I child I wondered just how many plums the Queen could eat . . . send her victorious.

    What surprised me when I was teaching was that young children were still firmly of the opinion that a woman couldn't have a baby until she was married; one boy was adamant about it although he knew his parents weren't wed. DD

    PS I think I'm right in thinking that mis-hearings such as those above are called 'Mondegreens' - there was a song about something which had the line 'And they laid him on the green' which was mis-heard as 'Lady Mondegreen'.
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,281
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I love it... :lol::lol: my Mum used to say you never know what is around the corner..so tried to avoid them... :shock:
    Love
    Barbara
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    DD - you are quite right. Mondegreens they are and some are wonderful. I think one of my favourites is from the Bob Dylan song 'Blowing in the Wind'. Someone misheard 'the answer, my friend' as 'The ants are my friends' On a similar subject there is a book of (I think) newspaper typos, called 'A Steroid hit the Earth' :lol:

    Sharon, the hymn is The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came and usually sung as a Christmas carol. The 'highly flavoured gravy' was also sung in many of my younger son's choirs. Another favourite was Haydn's 'Insanae et Vanae Curae (Frantic and Futile Anxieties) which was invariably known as Insanely and Vainly Curried.
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • tkachev
    tkachev Member Posts: 8,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    For years I thought the words to the song 'Feed the World'(Band aid) was Freedom wo.... oh....I'd quite happily sing along completely missing what the song title was.

    Elizabeth
    Never be bullied into silence.
    Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
    Accept no ones definition of your life

    Define yourself........

    Harvey Fierstein