Strange things you used to believe as a child

[Mark Deeks]

The BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell was the first man on the moon.

It was illegal to be outside about 11pm, and infidelity meant jail time.

Elephants are blue.

Peter Sellers and Saddam Hussein were the same person.

"Mininim" was a word, and even though I didn't know what it meant, I got very cross if this was disputed.

Dogs had 360-degree vision.

If you ate more than one different fruit at the same time, you would be sick.

[Mark James]

I thought the word capacity was pronounced kappa city.

I thought Jimmy Saville's first name was Jimil and Fixit was his surname.

I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

[Gavin Chipper]

I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

When adults say they don't feel like adults it's likely to be because they haven't shaken off their views on what being an adult is like from their childhood.

[Mark James]

I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

When adults say they don't feel like adults it's likely to be because they haven't shaken off their views on what being an adult is like from their childhood.

I prefer the way I said it.

[Marc Meakin]

Eating my crusts put hairs, on my chest, but I did wonder what it did to girls.
Boys mustn't cry.
Every house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants ( these were days before glade air fresheners.)
Flea darts gave you fleas.
Playing with matches meant you wet the bed

[Matt Morrison]

Every house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants

I still believe this - is it not just true?

[Marc Meakin]

Every house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants

I still believe this - is it not just true?

Maybe my sense of smell has diminished

[Mark Deeks]

When I was young, I thought snooker balls all had two white stripes on the top and wondered how they managed to stay there when the ball was rolling.

[Marc Meakin]

I used to think that canned laughter was real.
Also I called a German shepherd dog an old station

[Johnny Canuck]

I thought a strip mall was a mall containing a strip club. To be fair it was often accurate.

[Gavin Chipper]

I may have thought that a pawn shop was a porn shop.

[Marc Meakin]

If i closed my eyes nobody could see me
I was around 5 at the time.

Teachers lived in the school.

If you forgot your PE kit you had to do PE in your pants.
(actually this was true)

[Piaras Piarasman]

I watched a lot of television/played a lot of video games as a little wienerschnitzel. I remember I used to stand in front of the bathroom mirror every Saturday/Sunday night to check that my irises hadn't developed any corners.

Also, respect to whatever schoolteacher came up with the idea of calling something the "magic [thing]" in order to stop all the kids from messing around with it. I fell into that trap as well.

[Adam Dexter]

That a plant nursery was somewhere you took plants when you went on holiday so that they could be watered.

This seemed perfectly rational to me, as knew that sometimes people would ask someone to come round and feed the cats/water the plants, and thought maybe if you didn't have anyone you'd trust enough, you'd drop the cats in at the cattery and the plants at the nursery.

[Mark Deeks]

My parents used to have a copy of Constable's The Haywain in their (incredibly 1970s) front room. I didn't know you have copies of things at the time, sooo, yeah.

[Fiona T]

My parents used to have a copy of Constable's The Haywain in their (incredibly 1970s) front room. I didn't know you have copies of things at the time, sooo, yeah.

I remember my daughter getting very excited when she read in her teletubbies comic that Van Gogh's sunflowers sold for over £20,000,000 as we had (still have) one hanging on the wall.

Perhaps for the 'really obvious things...' thread, but aside from the one on my wall, Van Gogh painted seven Sunflowers, which I didn't know until I started learning about art.

[Marc Meakin]

I remember as an 8 year old before tinternet, game consoles etc. I used to look for 'treasure' walking the streets
I know it was the late 60s early seventies but there was still bomb sites from WW2.
I sometimes would find costume jewelery and I was convinced I'd found real diamonds and my elder brother would wind me up and say they were real

[Johnny Canuck]

I thought Microsoft had misspelt Tilting in the name of the font Perpetua Titling MT, or I was like "what the hell is a tit-ling"

[Adam Gillard]

I thought Microsoft had misspelt Tilting in the name of the font Perpetua Titling MT, or I was like "what the hell is a tit-ling"

Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

[Gavin Chipper]

I used to think that canned laughter was real.

A lot of the time the laughter on comedy shows is real isn't it?

[Marc Meakin]

I used to think that canned laughter was real.

A lot of the time the laughter on comedy shows is real isn't it?

If its taped before a studio audience the yes.

Here is a list of shows with a laughter track, (canned laughter.)
https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?ke ... augh-track

[Peter Mabey]

I thought "fr." under the name of each recipe in my mum's copy of Mrs Beeton meant "fried" - even though that seemed really weird sometimes. (she did rely on her frying-pan for using leftovers)

[Fiona T]

Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

[Ian Volante]

Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

[Gavin Chipper]

Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

[Gavin Chipper]

I thought "fr." under the name of each recipe in my mum's copy of Mrs Beeton meant "fried" - even though that seemed really weird sometimes. (she did rely on her frying-pan for using leftovers)

And what did it mean?

And what does it mean here?

Was it really them who got HARUSPEX? Fr.

For real, presumably?

[Adam Gillard]

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

Yes, one time I heard an advert during the golf coverage that pronounced it "Title-ist" as if that just rolls off the tongue, and that's when I learned that it wasn't pronounced "Tit-leist". Presumably they want the wearer to feel that they will win titles or something.

I've had problems parsing similar words as well, like reading "misled" as rhyming with Faisal-ed (as the past tense of an imagined verb "to misle"), rather than mis+led.

[David Williams]

I was probably rather older than I should have been when I realised that the River Thames I'd read about was actually the same one as the River Tems I'd heard about. And there was also Paul Gallen pronouncing SUNDRIES as if it's what they do to tomatoes.

[Ian Volante]

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

Ahh, that makes a modicum of sense. Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

[Fiona T]

Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

It's getting it talked about - you've heard of it now!

[Ian Volante]

Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

It's getting it talked about - you've heard of it now!

Oh I'd heard about it for many years, but just thought it was a silly name.

[Mark James]

I heard it first on Beavis and Butt-Head where they pronounced it tit-liest, like the most titly. The way I've heard the "correct" pronunciation is tide lest.

[Gavin Chipper]

I used to not know that actors on television were a thing, and that programmes were all just made "from scratch" using some sort of technology. A bit like how things are going to be in a few years anyway.