What do you remember being surprised by in your youth?

[6packofun]

I think I was most shocked by my peers in my freshman year of college who had never worked a day in their life. I sort of assumed that all high school kids work at least very part-time.  It was shocking to me how little responsibility my peers in high school (in an affluent neighborhood; we were NOT) were expected to have by their parents.

 

I think I would have been shocked at someone being shocked that I'd never been able to afford a trip on a plane or to the ocean if it wasn't nearby.  LOL  But, I've always tended to be surprised that people are actually shocked about mundane, perfectly normal stuff like that.  :P

[Granny_Weatherwax]

The first time I rode on a plane was when I went to college. I didn't realize people would be shocked by that. 

 

I didn't realize you could fill a gas tank until I was dating DH. My mom and Dad always scraped together gas money, usually $5, and one of us kids had to take the money in to the cashier so she could set the pump to whatever amount we had. We could not go over that amount as there wasn't any money to cover it. I remember the first time DH filled his tank when I was with him. That was when pumps still chimed at the dollar amounts. When it reached $5 I began to become uneasy when it hit $10 I was in full blown panic mode and looking for ways to escape when we were caught being unable to pay. I was in total shock when, after filing up he went in to pay and came out with a Coke and M & Ms for each of us. I think my response was something akin to "You didn't steal those, did you?" 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Scoutermom

[Guest]

I thought people in my college dorm just liked burning incense. I didn't realize--until my husband enlightened me--that they were doing it to cover up the smell of pot. :o

Huh! That never occurred to me either...

[Scarlett]

I was done highschool when I found out how credit cards really worked. 

 

I just never gave it much thought. But when I did I thought it worked this way. With the credit card you get to pay easily with just a swipe, so you don't have to bother with cash. But you make a promise to pay them back at the end of the month. And if you don't pay them back that is the same as stealing, since you agreed to pay them back. So I assumed that if you don't pay them back promptly without letting them know why and making arrangements with a lawyer - well then they would call the cops on you, and could bring you up on charges for stealing. 

 

Then I meet someone who was in thousands of dollars of credit card debt - and didn't really know what he spent it on. It was then that I learned you could let things ride month, after month, after month. 

 

 

:)  So funny the way we process things.  I wish more people thought it was the way you first thought.

[Janie Grace]

As a kid, we grew up "going home" to where my parents were born and raised, at least once a month, but often more than that. I remember being shocked that not everyone "went home" frequently or even referred to a place that they had never lived as "home."

This is fascinating. I'm reading Hillbilly Elegy and it so reminds me of what the author describes. Do you mind my asking where you lived and where "home" was?

[AnnE-girl]

I was in college when I found out some parents make their kids pay for nearly everything aside from basic food and shelter themselves. Maybe I was spoiled, but I can't imagine telling a 15-year-old she was on her own for basics like school clothes and shampoo.

[Scarlett]

The first time I rode on a plane was when I went to college. I didn't realize people would be shocked by that. 

 

I didn't realize you could fill a gas tank until I was dating DH. My mom and Dad always scraped together gas money, usually $5, and one of us kids had to take the money in to the cashier so she could set the pump to whatever amount we had. We could not go over that amount as there wasn't any money to cover it. I remember the first time DH filled his tank when I was with him. That was when pumps still chimed at the dollar amounts. When it reached $5 I began to become uneasy when it hit $10 I was in full blown panic mode and looking for ways to escape when we were caught being unable to pay. I was in total shock when, after filing up he went in to pay and came out with a Coke and M & Ms for each of us. I think my response was something akin to "You didn't steal those, did you?" 

 

 

LOL....this made me LOL....sorry.

 

Every time I ask dss to pump gas for me he asks me 'how much?'  Apparently his mom never fills up either.  I always do.  I think he is finally learning to just fill up for me.

[teachermom2834]

About the gas- my family would buy gas everyday it seemed. The beginning of every errand was a stop at the gas station for $2 worth of gas. When I started driving I started putting $5 in at a time and I felt so fancy!

[Garga]

I was shocked to find out in my late teens that huge amounts of adults cuss and make innuendo and sleep around and smoke.  I thought only rebellious teens did that and thought everyone grew out of it by the time they were in their twenties or thirties at the latest.  I, who was an innocent kid and liked being that way, was very disappointed.  I'd been enduring and biding my time until I got away from the ruffians at school and could be around cultured people.  

 

The only adults I'd been around were my mild-mannered parents, school teachers and piano teachers who were careful not to talk offensively in class, and some church members.  The TV shows back in the 80s were pretty mild and we didn't go to movies.  So...I didn't know that adults did all those things.  Just dumb kids.

[Scarlett]

About the gas- my family would buy gas everyday it seemed. The beginning of every errand was a stop at the gas station for $2 worth of gas. When I started driving I started putting $5 in at a time and I felt so fancy!

 

 

My mom filled up.  But then trips were very carefully planned out to make the tank last until she could afford to fill up again.  I remember not being able to go to friend's house in the country because it would use up too much of the gas and it had to last to get her to work.

[Tanaqui]

I just never gave it much thought. But when I did I thought it worked this way. With the credit card you get to pay easily with just a swipe, so you don't have to bother with cash. But you make a promise to pay them back at the end of the month

 

You know what the credit card companies call people like that, who pay off their bill at the end of each month? They call you freeloaders. They like your friend a lot more! All that sweet, sweet monthly interest.

 

When I was a very small child (well, not that small), I thought you couldn't think a lie in your head. You could think "I will say the sky is green", and if you were genuinely mistaken and thought the sky was green when it wasn't you could think that, but if you knew the sky was blue and tried to think the words "The sky is green", it just wouldn't happen.

 

I was quite shocked when I tested it out for myself. (Very cautiously, I might add - I had a vague idea that my head might explode or something.)

 

When I was in high school, I had friends who thought their families were not particularly well-off. I'm sorry, but even in NYC, a combined income nearing 200k a year is a hefty amount. These friends spoke about going to the Hamptons. I pointed out the obvious, only to be told that it's okay, it's not the "good" part of the Hamptons. Somebody that year learned something. I learned that there is a "good" and a "not so good" part of the Hamptons. Hopefully, they learned that there isn't.

[Debbi in Texas]

:grouphug:  You're not alone.  My dad didn't come to my high school graduation either - or my college graduation - or my wedding.  I had committed a crime.  I had invited my mom and she would be there, so he thought it was fitting punishment that he didn't show up.   :cursing:  (He flat out told me he would come if mom didn't.)

 

My dad walked me down the aisle drunk. At my high school graduation, both his wrists were bandaged from a suicide attempt. He later made a complete turnaround and I am so thankful.

[Guest]

I remember being surprised that when it was winter in our hemisphere, it was summer in, say, Australia, and vice versa. Similarly, I was shocked to find that people celebrated Christmas in the summer. Once I really thought about it, of course, it made perfect sense, but it just wasn't something I'd ever thought of!

My son did not know this when he was about 15. His friend was going to visit Peru in the winter (here) where her family was from and said something about, "because it's summer there now" and DS was like, "What???" He simply could not believe that half of the entire world was celebrating Christmas during their summer season.

[Scarlett]

My dad walked me down the aisle drunk. At my high school graduation, both his wrists were bandaged from a suicide attempt. He later made a complete turnaround and I am so thankful.

 

 

 

((((hugs))))

 

I love a good turnaround story.  My dad never did.

[Outdoorsy Type]

I remember realizing that when they were talking about "test tube babies" on the news, the babies weren't gestated for nine months in a test tube. 😂 I had been so confused.

[Elizabeth 2]

I remember being shocked at how to make Tea. Thankfully I learned before it was a concern. One of my best friends didn't learn until her wedding night. I found out later my older brothers had conversations about it with my parents, but my step-dad, and my dad, had it in their heads that talking about it would make me crave it more.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I remember being amazed that the other kids in grade 1 weren't getting in trouble for bringing red, blue or green folders on the first day of school.

 

I was sure that 'manilla folders' was actually 'vanilla folders' and they had to be the off-white cream coloured ones.    :blushing:

 

 

 

At about the same age I also found out that dogs aren't all male and cats aren't all female. Hehe. I thought there was a dog daddy and a cat mummy and their babies would be dogs or cats depending on gender.

 

 

It's a steep learning curve in grade one, clearly.

[Elizabeth 2]

 

At about the same age I also found out that dogs aren't all male and cats aren't all female. Hehe. I thought there was a dog daddy and a cat mummy and their babies would be dogs or cats depending on gender.

 

 

It's a steep learning curve in grade one, clearly.

lol me too. I've found this is a common one, but still embarrassing for me to admit.

[RoughCollie]

I was amazed that swallowing a cherry pit didn't result in a cherry tree growing in my stomach and out of my mouth, that pickles were made from cucumbers and were not the fruit of pickle trees, that what I read in nonfiction books wasn't always factual, that women would purposely marry men who leave their dirty clothes on the floor, and that some church-going Christians commit adultery,

 

For a long time, I thought people got pregnant by kissing and that women gave birth through their navels.

 

I was amazed when sunlight streamed through our bedroom window in Boston at 5 a.m., a lot earlier than the sun rose in Atlanta. I thought a space ship had landed in the parking lot. The sad part is that when I woke up my husband to go check, he said, "That is sunlight, not a spaceship", and went back to sleep. Who knew he knew me that well, especially since I have never thought aliens and spaceships were real ... until that morning, briefly.

Edited February 28, 2017 by RoughCollie

[MercyA]

I think I would have been shocked at someone being shocked that I'd never been able to afford a trip on a plane or to the ocean if it wasn't nearby.  LOL  But, I've always tended to be surprised that people are actually shocked about mundane, perfectly normal stuff like that.   :p

 

I know, right? My first time on a plane was on my honeymoon.  :)

[MercyA]

I always thought that particular girl was a wimp and a goody-goody, but after that I wondered if she wasn't a bit slow, as well.  I felt very sorry for her and that her mom was doing her wrong, if it was indeed true.  Now, I think she was just a docile and also very literal child.

 

She may have also had scrupulosity, a form of OCD.

[ScoutTN]

I was shocked, at summer camp at age 10, to learn that not everyone my age could swim. 

 

Surprised as a first year college student to meet classmates who did not know how to pet a dog. You know how we teach toddlers to pet, not pat/hit the dog? Like that. It just had never occurred to me that some people had no exposure to pets due to allergies. 

 

 

 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

 

 

I was 19 and met an Arab man whose father had three wives and he had nineteen brothers and sister and did not know when his birthday was off the top of his head. His family had never celebrated it so he never looked forward to it. He thought it was sometime in the spring, lol and that was a real shock to me, that some people would not know their own birthday. Years later I was talking to a man from that area of the world and I said I was born in 1970 so I was now 36. He got a shocked look and said, "Me too! I was born in 1970 so I must be 36!" He just knew his birthday was in October and it must have passed, lol. He was kind of annoyed that he had gotten so old. He had it in his head he was 32, that was the last time he had paid attention.  

My best friend in college was Arab, from Egypt, and said that birthdays were so laxly documented there that the one on her birth certificate was wrong by about a week.  Her parents filed for it when they got around to it, and the clerk put that day's date on it, and that was that, because it really wasn't all that important to get it exactly right.

[dirty ethel rackham]

 

At about the same age I also found out that dogs aren't all male and cats aren't all female. Hehe. I thought there was a dog daddy and a cat mummy and their babies would be dogs or cats depending on gender.

 

 

Me, too.  I think I learned in 3rd grade when my cat ended up in the family way and the likely culprit was the cat next door who I always thought was a female cat (I guess Sam was not short for Samantha.)  Even to this day, I automatically assume all dogs are male and all cats are female unless told otherwise. 

 

 

For a long time, I thought people got pregnant by kissing and that women gave birth through their navels.

 

 

Yep.  I asked my mom how the baby came out and she told me that a hole opens up at the bottom of one's tummy.  I assumed that some how, a hole appeared below the navel.  I was in for a big surprise in 6th grade when we saw the movies.  Not only did I find out that my assumptions were wrong, but I was the only one who did not know about periods and how babies got in there in the first place. 

 

I was shocked to learn that a quarter to the hour did not mean 25 minutes.  I couldn't understand that part in Ramona the Pest. 

 

When I was little, we grew up on a street where most of the families went to our church and, thusly, our school.  We're Catholic.  Everyone else were "Publics."  Yeah, I thought Public was a religion.  I didn't know what Presbyterian or Lutheran was. 

[Carol in Cal.]

I was shocked, at summer camp at age 10, to learn that not everyone my age could swim. 

 

Surprised as a first year college student to meet classmates who did not know how to pet a dog. You know how we teach toddlers to pet, not pat/hit the dog? Like that. It just had never occurred to me that some people had no exposure to pets due to allergies. 

Ha, I didn't learn how to swim until the summer before my senior year in high school.

 

I never did really master the breathing that goes with the crawl.  But I faked it well enough to get that Red Cross card.

 

I was very motivated.  Having the card was a graduation requirement, and if you didn't have one on file by your senior year, you had to take swimming lessons at the freezing cold community pool 5 days per week at 8AM.  With no car and no hair dryers (this was before pistol type hairdryers were available), and a very windy high school location near the ocean, that would have made for an extremely miserable year.  I'm not sure how I would even have gotten to school from that pool.

[creekland]

I was shocked to find out in my late teens that huge amounts of adults cuss and make innuendo and sleep around and smoke.  I thought only rebellious teens did that and thought everyone grew out of it by the time they were in their twenties or thirties at the latest.  I, who was an innocent kid and liked being that way, was very disappointed.  I'd been enduring and biding my time until I got away from the ruffians at school and could be around cultured people.  

 

The only adults I'd been around were my mild-mannered parents, school teachers and piano teachers who were careful not to talk offensively in class, and some church members.  The TV shows back in the 80s were pretty mild and we didn't go to movies.  So...I didn't know that adults did all those things.  Just dumb kids.

 

My kids might admit to this sometime later in their lives - who knows?  I think we self-select with our inner circle group of friends.  We may have different faiths and cultures, but none of us openly cuss, sleep around, or smoke/use drugs.  I warned them about all of that before they went to college and of course they've seen it on TV, but I think they were still surprised when they saw it IRL as college students (not just in high school).

 

My dad walked me down the aisle drunk. At my high school graduation, both his wrists were bandaged from a suicide attempt. He later made a complete turnaround and I am so thankful.

 

:grouphug:  and  :hurray: .  I'm glad some folks actually change!

[Carol in Cal.]

I was shocked the first time I read unexpurgated Shakespeare.  It's so different with all the dirty jokes left in...

[Zinnia]

This is fascinating. I'm reading Hillbilly Elegy and it so reminds me of what the author describes. Do you mind my asking where you lived and where "home" was?

 

I just finished Hillbilly Elegy.  It is the song of my people.  :)

 

I grew up in north GA, "home" was south GA, but we were 2 generations removed from Kentucky.  Scots-Irish.

[Heathermomster]

In the 11th grade, I attended a new high school and sat in a 11th grade English class as an audit. I always attended honors and advanced classes. Anyhoo. That was the semester that I realized that many students my age could not read. :(

[Julie Smith]

I remember being amazed that the other kids in grade 1 weren't getting in trouble for bringing red, blue or green folders on the first day of school.

 

I was sure that 'manilla folders' was actually 'vanilla folders' and they had to be the off-white cream coloured ones.    :blushing:

 

 

 

At about the same age I also found out that dogs aren't all male and cats aren't all female. Hehe. I thought there was a dog daddy and a cat mummy and their babies would be dogs or cats depending on gender.

 

 

It's a steep learning curve in grade one, clearly.

When I was a kid i insisted that all cats were female, all dogs were male.

I suppose I never questioned reproduction - since I also insisted my pet cat was my natural born child.

[Murphy101]

I have no memory of ever not knowing about sex. I remember being shocked in kindergarten that no one else knew.

 

There was the inevitable animals based lessons common to that grade and I think the discussion was farm animals. And a kid asked where farmers bought all the baby animals and I said rather rudely in hindsight something along the lines of, "They don't buy them. The big animals screw around to make the babies just like people do." I remember thinking those other kids were idiots. I didn't know that many parents lie about what the pets are doing or what is seen on tv nature shows. I still don't understand why either.

[Scarlett]

I have no memory of ever not knowing about sex. I remember being shocked in kindergarten that no one else knew.

 

There was the inevitable animals based lessons common to that grade and I think the discussion was farm animals. And a kid asked where farmers bought all the baby animals and I said rather rudely in hindsight something along the lines of, "They don't buy them. The big animals screw around to make the babies just like people do." I remember thinking those other kids were idiots. I didn't know that many parents lie about what the pets are doing or what is seen on tv nature shows. I still don't understand why either.

I remember my ds at about age 6 or 7 glued to a nature show showing the birth of an elephant. He said, huh! I didn't know babies came out of mommas bottoms!

 

I explained to him that it same place that poop comes out but very close to that area.

[lavender's green]

I thought the "watch for pedestrians" signs meant to watch out for people from a country called Pedestria. When someone tried to explain what pedestrians are, I concluded that people from Pedestria also happen to be really bad at staying on the sidewalks. Got a lot of funny looks when I finally asked where Pedestria is located.

[lauraw4321]

I was spending the night with a friend when I was probably 10. I was shocked when she made is fried eggs in the morning. I couldn't believe that 1) she knew how 2) her parents wouldn't mind and 3) her parents actually preferred that she take care of breakfast instead of waking them up.

 

(I was an only child and my parents were helicopter-ish)

[gardenmom5]

I had speech therapy through the school for at least a year, had undiagnosed learning disabilities - was constantly getting pull-out support - so, I felt like I was fairly stupid.  it would surprise me when I knew something a peer didn't.

one of the first things I realized I knew my peers didn't - was kansas city was in missouri.  I remember thinking - I'm stupid - and I know that.

[freesia]

I was shocked to find out that a child who was accidentally conceived was not, in fact, a result of an act that happened by accident while the parents were asleep or something.

[Janie Grace]

I was shocked to find out that a child who was accidentally conceived was not, in fact, a result of an act that happened by accident while the parents were asleep or something.

 

YESSSS! Me too! I thought a baby would only be conceived in the summer because when else would the parents be sleeping naked and accidentally roll too close to each other?  :lol:

[Tanaqui]

I remember being shocked at how to make Tea. Thankfully I learned before it was a concern. One of my best friends didn't learn until her wedding night. I found out later my older brothers had conversations about it with my parents, but my step-dad, and my dad, had it in their heads that talking about it would make me crave it more.

 

I remember being surprised to find that some people don't know until that late, or even adolescence.

 

A few more things spring to mind: When I was young, and we walked by a parking lot with a PARK HERE sign, for years I thought those signs were lying. There was no park there! I worked it out about the same time I figured out that "blocks" were not quite the same as squares on the sidewalk.

 

As far as cats and dogs, I never got confused on that front, though I have had to explain to people that no, the little birdies aren't baby pigeons - they're sparrows. And the medium birdies aren't teenage pigeons either - they're starlings.

 

Also, when I was pretty young, our cat was fixed. We got him that way - I used to stop and pet him on the way home from school, and one day the people who owned the real estate office where he lived said they lost their lease, and their new office space couldn't have cats, would we like to have him and his brother? Why, yes ma'am! I was quite perturbed one day when he was licking himself, as cats do, and suddenly some weird growth came out from his body. My parents tried to explain that this is normal for toms, but I was not convinced - he'd been fixed! Yeah, well, they don't need to cut everything out, apparently. (As an adult, I'm still occasionally surprised when people say they only recently figured out that their adult cat is a tom or a queen. I can understand that not everybody finds it easy to sex kittens, even if I do, but surely once they're developed it's easy to see that they either have external genitals or don't!)

[lllll]

nm

Edited March 2, 2017 by --Kathy--

[Alice]

When I was a kid i insisted that all cats were female, all dogs were male.

 

 

 

Me too. I actually learned about sex at age 3. I never really remember not knowing where babies came from. But even though I kind of knew that biologically cats and dogs didn't mate, it still seemed true to me that cats were girls and dogs were boys. 

 

I grew up in Virginia. In high school were were on the way to a U2 concert in DC when someone made a comment that it was the stadium that the Redskins played at. I was like "OH! That makes so much sense!" Until that moment I had thought it was the Washington STATE Redskins and had been really confused as to why they were such a popular football team where I lived. 

[speedmom4]

When I was young I LOVED the TV show LIttle House on the Prairie. I remember my mom telling me that it was a true story. In my mind that meant that every single person in the world was being video taped in the event that when they grew up they would have a television show to produce. So I made sure that I was very dramatic and tried to look for the cameras. I was a tad disappointed when I realized that's not how that happened.  :huh:

[Carol in Cal.]

When I was young I LOVED the TV show LIttle House on the Prairie. I remember my mom telling me that it was a true story.

Funny story--Little House on the Prairie was filmed in California, much of it in Columbia State Historic Park, a living gold rush town in the foothills east of the Central Valley.  That scene at the start, the hillside where Melissa Gilbert runs happily along?  That's at 8500 feet, at alpine conditions.  That's why the grass is so short.  Actual prairies had grass so tall you couldn't see over the top of it.  Picturing that gives a whole different 'feel' to the books than the TV show did.

[teachermom2834]

I grew up in a conservative home and went to Catholic school.  Late in high school when I heard kids talk about sex I was shocked.  I really had no idea that teenagers did that.  I thought that was just in the movies or After School Specials or something.  

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Huh! That never occurred to me either...

 

Uh, me either  :huh: I burned incense all the time, and I never smoked pot! (Well, not then, anyway.) But it just occurred to me that the friend who introduced me to incense probably was :lol: 

[AndyJoy]

When I was 10 I went skiing for the first time and discovered that there were people who were prejudiced based on race.

 

When we were told to get a partner for the lift, I noticed one girl standing alone, looking upset, and four others pointing, giggling, and saying they wouldn't go with HER. I was not one to tolerate bullies, so I skied over and asked her to be my partner. On the lift I asked her why those other girls didn't like her. Were they classmates who didn't like her, or what? I was stunned and then horrified when she explained they were strangers and were mocking her because she was black. I was an Air Force brat and had grown up in DOD schools with kids of all races and had not encountered that before. It was eye-opening.

Edited March 1, 2017 by AndyJoy

[creekland]

When I was 10 I went skiing for the first time and discovered that there were people who were prejudiced based on race.

 

When we were told to get a partner for the lift, I noticed one girl standing alone, looking upset, and four others pointing, giggling, and saying they wouldn't go with HER. I was not one to tolerate bullies, so I skied over and asked her to be my partner. On the lift I asked her why those other girls didn't like her. Were they classmates who didn't like her, or what? I was stunned and then horrified when she explained they were strangers and were mocking her because she was black. I was an Air Force brat and had grown up in DOD schools with kids of all races and had not encountered that before. It was eye-opening.

 

I never encountered that IRL (vs TV or movies) until I met my (future) MIL in my college days.  It was definitely eye-opening.  I had no idea that kind of stuff happened "now."

[athomeontheprairie]

I had speech therapy through the school for at least a year, had undiagnosed learning disabilities - was constantly getting pull-out support - so, I felt like I was fairly stupid. it would surprise me when I knew something a peer didn't.

one of the first things I realized I knew my peers didn't - was kansas city was in missouri. I remember thinking - I'm stupid - and I know that.

I'll disagree. Its on both sides of the border. I go "home" to Kansas City but as my family moved, it's now weird to go "home" to a different state (I'm from kc,ks)

[gardenmom5]

I'll disagree. Its on both sides of the border. I go "home" to Kansas City but as my family moved, it's now weird to go "home" to a different state (I'm from kc,ks)

 

you know that is crosses the border - and the bulk of the city is in missouri (my mother's family settled in nwmo in the 1850s.) - just as there is st. louis, and an east st. louis (in illinois).  

my point - was they thought the entire city was in kansas.

 

I want to go visit my 3rdggm grave - she moved from Connecticut to Indiana to Kansas and is buried there (melvern). I spent 20 years untangling her life and finding her. I lucked out - she was on the 1900 census.

[BarbecueMom]

I got really upset once as a kid (about age six or seven?) because my mom was drinking and driving and I knew that was wrong. Except, I thought that meant ALL drinks, not just alcohol, and I was flipping out over a Pepsi from the Arby's drive-thru. Oops.

 

I also thought only rich kids got to have rain boots and rain coats.

[flyingaway]

I remember being so horrified by how close together the houses were the first time we visited cousins who lived in a city. I was from a very rural area.

 

I will also always remember the family who fed us turtle for dinner and the mother served tossed salad with her hands.