Things you assumed and were astonished to find out you were completely wrong

[Cattery]

For example: The Elgin Marbles. Heard these mentioned from time to time over the years. Always pictured marbles; kids’ marbles. Then I heard they were something to do with Greece and I’ve always thought Elgin was there. Got it all completely wrong

Until fairly recently, children who grew up in the country would know all about the realities of farming and children who lived in the town would walk past butcher's shops and markets and see the whole carcase being hauled about and cut up. Far more squeamishness about nowadays.

It was only a few years ago I found out that the lyrics to Freed from Desire was "he's got his strong beliefs" I always thought it was "he's got his trombelese" no idea what instrument I thought a trombelese was 🤦‍♀️

Where did you think Chinese Alan came from?

When I was a kid, I wondered why everyone was fighting over golf. I was very young when the news spoke about the gulf war.

My husband believed babies assembled themselves on the way out of the womb rahter than growing in the womb fully formed. So he believed as they came down the birth canal, they got arms stuck on etc ala conveyer belt assembly in a factory. He was in his early 30's before he realised this was daft

I remember a friend at primary I must have been about 7 or 8 saying she knew a really really rude word. She could only whisper it. The word was “tedious”. So for a while I thought this was the ultimate swear word!

Yes, but Robert Carlyle is Scottish. I can't actually remember the film in detail, did he not have a Scottish accent in it? Maybe I'm remembering him in tv interviews about it then if so.

Righto. So you can congratulate yourself on growing up in a particular 'type of environment'. Many of us didn't and created our own versions of the universe from the material available to us - which has allowed us the entertainment of discovering our mistakes later on. Honestly, get over yourself.

FerreroFan · Yesterday 22:14
I thought Arsene Wenger founded Arsenal Football Club and it was named after him.

Same here! Also assumed Roy Orbison was blind!

Oh also as a kid thought ‘to let’ was toilet missing the ‘I’. Really good I never tried to go into a building that had that sign up!!

Tbf this is a pretty common mistake, the Internet is full of memes about it!

(Not that I was only educated on it by my husband last year, ohhhh no 😅)

The first time I drove over the Severn Bridge I thought 'Coinbin' was Welsh for toll.

He put on a Northern accent for the film

Frank Sinatra was born to Italian immigrants, how can he have been black?

I still get confused about Guyana, it's quite an African sounding name IMO.

I was surprised when I read that only one of The Village People was really gay.

For a very long time I mentally pronounced portakabin as poor-TAKka-bin. Then one day I was on the top deck of a bus looking over a building site and I wondered why portaloo was so obviously a portmanteau of 'portable' and 'loo' but ... and then it clicked. I was in my 30s at the time.

Genuinely astonished so many people take medical advice for themselves/children/pets off the internet (be that Google or mumsnet).

I didn’t actually realise it was a thing until I saw someone offer terrible advice and more than one person actually believe it! Bonkers.

I don't know why I was surprised, I've got form. When the Ballad of Tom Jones came out, I'd been singing "you stopped us from killing Trevor" for years until a friend starting laughing asking who the hell Trevor was. I'd never thought about it before 🤣

Also, Center Parcs aren't really under a giant plastic dome. I've never been to one and when they first started advertising in the UK a long time ago I'm sure they did have an advert that gave that impression. I was quite disappointed to learn that's not what they're like, but then how would they have got planning permission?

Yes the advert made it look like everything was under the dome!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cllEP3O3fEk

@Screamingabdabz "I thought the Falkland Islands were just off the coast of Scotland."

I am old enough to remember when so did most of the British population. And the Prime Minister.

I certainly knew everything on this thread, many of which are absolutely basic general knowledge which I thought everyone would know, even children would know a lot of it, so it's surprising when adults don't
If you read widely, both fiction and non-fiction, from childhood onwards, read newspapers, listen to an intelligent radio station eg radio 4 or world service, go to museums, art galleries etc, keep up with a bit of popular culture, have friends and family with wide-ranging interests which they talk about, and grow up in that type of environment, then you're highly likely to have excellent general knowledge

So worldly and intelligent but you cannot comprehend how others have not have the same opportunities and experiences as yourself?

Yes ponies ARE small horses, i.e. under 14.2hh = pony. Over 14.2hh = horse.

I am also a voracious reader and know a lot of general knowledge, but I still thought Center Parcs was completely under a dome and have never troubled myself to understand how a dishwasher operates. DP would laugh at me for both of those though.

Loads of kids stories and nursery rhymes are actually pretty dark in places. Nursery rhymes especially often have verses that are lesser known and really bleak!

Same. My love is of the morning he’s got his trombelees. That’s what I sing anyway

The narwhals thing makes me think of Katherine Parkinson (on Would I lie to you) saying she put wombles (sp? keeps autocorrecting as Wimbledon) down as a mammal on her GCSE biology exam. And she went to Oxford so the sneery killjoys on this thread should take note.