28 September 2007

Childhood Misunderstandings

When I was a child, there were a few things I just could not understand. Mostly because I misunderstood the name of the thing or the description of the thing. Here are a few things that were rather mind-boggling to me:

  • Fax machines. How on earth could you put a paper in the machine and send it to somebody else? I imagined that the paper shredded itself into pieces so minute they were invisible. And then, somehow, the pieces joined back together on the other side to be a whole piece of paper again. It think if I had ever actually SEEN a fax come in or go out it would have made more sense. Heck, if somebody would have explained to me that the messages were sent through the telephone wire, that would have made it infinitely more clear.
  • The second verse of "I Am a Child of God." It says, "I am a child of God, and so my needs are great." I understood this as "...and so my knees are great." This of course, sounded odd, but it made enough sense. Except that I didn't think it applied to me since I had been hospitalized for nearly a month for an infection in my left knee. So, I usually opted not to sing that line. After all, I may have been a child of God, but my knees were NOT great.
  • When I was quite small, I didn't understand how the radio or TV worked as far as broadcasting. I thought that the grown-ups could pick the show or song that played. I remember telling my babysitter once that I was glad she turned on the song that was playing since I really liked it. (Sadly, that song was "In the Distance"; I was about 4, in my own defense). I remember flipping through channels wondering why I couldn't find the show I wanted to watch.
  • Baking times. If something should bake for 1 hour at 200 degrees, why not bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees? I remember my mom trying to explain it when I was very small, but it really didn't sink in until I was a little older.
Now my misunderstandings revolve around people who don't like chocolate, people who don't use an RSS reader, and people who think they can cross the double-white lines in and out of the HOV lane. Maybe I will understand these things as I get older.

5 comments:

Christie C said...

I thought that Santa could create anything in the world that I wanted for Christmas, even if it wasn't in a store or catalog. I remember wanting a huge stuffed animal, as big as me. My parents convinced me to get something else that was conveniently found at Toys R Us instead.

Janssen said...

Do you use Google Reader? And I don't really understand the chocolate thing either.

Sherman said...

On the line of the alphabet song,,l, m, n, o, p. I thought it was 'elomento P'. Or a special kind of p,

Unknown said...

When I was little I thought that "Chef Boyardee" was really "Chef 'for your deed'" which made enough sense to me, cause I figured it meant that it was good for me, just like good deeds were good.

Noelle said...

My friend used to think the line "Cherish virture" during the hymn "Dearest Children God is Near You" said "Cherries hurt you." So she never ate cherries as a child.