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Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
posted
Once, when visiting a very small town with my family when I was seven or eight years old, my father said "They roll up the sidewalks around here at 5 PM." I took his remark literally and I could not understand how or why they would roll up sidewalks made of concrete. Seemed like an awful lot of effort, and to what end, I could not fathom.

Can you recall anything like that from your childhood?
 
Posts: 110065 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Not really from Vienna
Picture of arfmel
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As a little kid 4 or 5 years old (in the early 1960s), the “colored people” my grandparents referred to were a mystery to me. I figured they must be a variety like you’d see in a box of crayons. It seemed odd that I never saw any of them when they were being discussed.

Also, “my eyes were bigger than my stomach” didn’t make sense to me. Particularly when my dear old fat Uncle Jack used the term.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arfmel,
 
Posts: 27280 | Location: SW of Hovey, Texas | Registered: January 30, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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My Father used to insult my Mother by saying her family lived so far back in the sticks, they had to pipe the sunshine in.
I accepted that for quite a while.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16561 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Deeds Not Words
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My parents were referencing the Houston skyline and said “skyscrapers”. I observed the contrail of a passing commercial airliner...subsequently for years, I was confused because I thought a skyscraper was a jet...made sense to my kid mind...


Navy BMD: When "Aim High" isn't High Enough!
 
Posts: 79 | Registered: August 05, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lucky to be Irish
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quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
Once, when visiting a very small town with my family when I was seven or eight years old, my father said "They roll up the sidewalks around here at 5 PM." I took his remark literally and I could not understand how or why they would roll up sidewalks made of concrete. Seemed like an awful lot of effort, and to what end, I could not fathom.

Can you recall anything like that from your childhood?


Funny, I forgot all about that saying until you mentioned it. As a kid of about four or five I pictured the same thing in my head when my Grandfather said it.
 
Posts: 1771 | Location: Mason, OH | Registered: October 19, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Muzzle flash
aficionado
Picture of flashguy
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quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
Once, when visiting a very small town with my family when I was seven or eight years old, my father said "They roll up the sidewalks around here at 5 PM." I took his remark literally and I could not understand how or why they would roll up sidewalks made of concrete. Seemed like an awful lot of effort, and to what end, I could not fathom.

Can you recall anything like that from your childhood?
There are still a lot of little towns where the colloquial sense of that statement is true.

flashguy




Texan by choice, not accident of birth
 
Posts: 27911 | Location: Dallas, TX | Registered: May 08, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Run Silent
Run Deep

Picture of Patriot
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Children can be so literal...

When I was about the same age, I remember seeing the warning signs in neighborhoods that said “ caution children at play” or “watch out for children”...but saw no kids playing?

So I asked my Mom where all the children were?


_____________________________
Pledge allegiance or pack your bag!
The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
Spread my work ethic, not my wealth
 
Posts: 7102 | Location: South East, Pa | Registered: July 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
delicately calloused
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Why would anyone sell their garage? Who would only buy the garage? How does one move a garage and why have I never seen one being moved? Who sells their yard?



You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
 
Posts: 30001 | Location: Norris Lake, TN | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
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Not an expression, but we were listening to AC/DC and I was singing along. Mom asks me what I was singing. I answer "Dirty knees and the thunder chief." She smiles and tells me it's "Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap."

Now in my head 30+ years later I still hear dirty knees and the thunder cheif every time I hear the song.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 21340 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
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I have tended to have very literal understanding of things all of my life and to this day sometimes have trouble understanding expressions that don’t mean what they seem to. My memories of childhood are very dim, but the one expression that I do recall was, “Keep your eye on the ball,” in reference to sports like baseball. The admonition was as incomprehensible as someone’s talking about the Trinity, and it never occurred to me to even ask what it meant. I just assumed it was one of those things that could only be understood by adults, and throughout childhood I never realized it was simply a way of saying, “Watch the ball.”




“I can’t give you brains, but I can give you a diploma.”
— The Wizard of Oz

This life is a drill. It is only a drill. If it had been a real life, you would have been given instructions about where to go and what to do.
 
Posts: 47958 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ol' Jack always says...
what the hell.
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I never understood what a 'cow lick' was. I thought everyone was saying "callick".

Then one day well into my adult years for some reason it just hit me "Oh! Cow Lick!" Big Grin
 
Posts: 10205 | Location: PA | Registered: March 30, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
stupid beyond
all belief
Picture of Deqlyn
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My folks never used the term but a friend of mine did.


"Moving the furniture" ,or rearranging the room".



What man is a man that does not make the world better. -Balian of Ibelin

Only boring people get bored. - Ruth Burke
 
Posts: 8250 | Registered: September 13, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
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quote:
Originally posted by Deqlyn:
My folks never used the term but a friend of mine did.


"Moving the furniture" ,or rearranging the room".



What does it mean?

Was it followed by on the titanic or a sinking ship?



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 21340 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drug Dealer
Picture of Jim Shugart
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The Christian hymn Bringing in the Sheaves of course refers to harvesting wheat. I thought they were saying 'sheets' and pictured my mom retrieving bedlinen from the clothesline.



When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. - George Bernard Shaw
 
Posts: 15529 | Location: Virginia | Registered: July 03, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Bookers Bourbon
and a good cigar
Picture of Johnny 3eagles
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Vaccinated with a phonograph needle. Someone who talks a lot.





If you're goin' through hell, keep on going.
Don't slow down. If you're scared don't show it.
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there.


NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
 
Posts: 7369 | Location: Arkansas  | Registered: November 06, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Never miss an
opportunity to STFU
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“Nose to the grindstone” would hurt.




Never be more than one step away from your sword-Old Greek Wisdom
 
Posts: 2295 | Location: SE Mich-- USA | Registered: September 10, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Conveniently located directly
above the center of the Earth
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...."don't make me have to pin your ears back".....


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Posts: 9879 | Location: sunny Orygun | Registered: September 27, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Haveme1or2
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My Pop said he was taking me
"to get my ears lowered"
I went to my mammaw crying wanting her to help me not have to go... At the barbershop I kept my hands on my ears throughout the hair cut.
 
Posts: 1002 | Location: Mint Hill NC | Registered: November 26, 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Official Space Nerd
Picture of Hound Dog
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quote:
Originally posted by Patriot:
Children can be so literal...


We were watching some avalanche disaster movie in the 70s. I was maybe 6-8 yrs old. The villain did his thing because "he was fired." I thought that meant they literally set him on fire with a flame thrower or something. I thought 'no wonder he's mad.'. .

I also did not know about stunts or special effects, meaning I thought that for every 'death' on tv, the actor(s) died for real.


I was not too bright, apparently.



Fear God and Dread Nought
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Jacky Fisher
 
Posts: 21968 | Location: Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth | Registered: September 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free men do not ask
permission to bear arms
Picture of George43
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When I was a kid and out of control my mom would say "He's had everything under the Sun".


A gun in the hand is worth more than ten policemen on the phone.
The American Revolution was carried out by a group of gun toting religious zealots.
 
Posts: 3810 | Location: Spring, Texas | Registered: June 26, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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