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?

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,

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.

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...

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.

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

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?

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?

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.

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 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!"

My folks never used the term but a friend of mine did.


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

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?

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.

Vaccinated with a phonograph needle. Someone who talks a lot.

“Nose to the grindstone” would hurt.

...."don't make me have to pin your ears back".....

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.

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.

When I was a kid and out of control my mom would say "He's had everything under the Sun".