Until I was about 11 or 12, I would not go down the condiment aisle in the grocery store by myself. I thought that was where the condoms were displayed/sold and I was too embarassed to let anyone see me near a condom.

Wren

When I was in grade 6 my friend asked if I knew what a condom was. I said, "of course I know what a condom is! It's a tall building with apartments!"

Lisa-Marie

When was younger I used to believe condoms were a food, because I once heard someone speak of vanilla and cherry flavored condoms, and I believed that for years

Anon

I used to believe that us boys grew condoms, and I could never figure out why mine had never grown yet. So I told my friend about it saying "How come my condom hasn't grown yet, but everyone else's had?" and he couldn't stop laughing and I didn't think it was funny at all! But he explained that you have to buy them and put them on for sex. And I didn't believe him so I asked both of my parents about it and they agreed with my friend… afterwards with "the talk". How embarrassing!

Wow

When I was younger my grandmother worked at a family planning clinic. I used to go into work with her every so often when she would watch me. There was a large bowl of condoms at the entrance and I assumed that all the brightly colored packages must be candy. It took me many many years before I realized I shouldn't be mad at my grandma for not letting me have her works candy

Anon

When I was about 9, I was over at a friends house. In her parents bathroom, we found a used condom in the trash can. We asked her mom what it was and she said it was part of the dads tutu. I had this mental image of my friends dad dressed in a pink frilly skirt dancing around the place. I thought condoms were only for cross-dressing dancers until I was in High School.

Smiley

When I was 6 my family had a fourth of July BBQ at our house with all of our relatives and close family friends. Just as dinner had finished cooking I stood up and screamed at the top of my lungs that I was going to go get the condoms so we could eat. I thought that condoms and condiments were the same thing.

Brittany

When I was around 9, a boy about a year older than I was told me a rubber was a thing a boy puts on the end of his prick so the girl doesn't get pregnant. I pictured a cork-like stopper made of hard rubber.

Anon

In the third grade, I had a friend who was a year or so older than me. One day, she told me about how her older sister was 'allowed' to have sex since she used condoms. I asked what they were, and she said that her sister showed her one, and it looked like a bag with white stuff at the bottom.

I then believed that condoms were sandwich baggies with little white pills in it.

Anon

When I was 16 and worked at a grocery store I was asked where the condiments were. I thought that was a fancy name for condoms. I was so embarrassed that I just turned red and could hardly speak.

Naive Girl

I saw a movie with John Travolta in it. He was talking to some girl and she had said something about condoms, then he flipped out a butterfly knife.
Until I was 15, I thought a condom was a knife.

Rob

Once, I was in a theatre production of the Sound Of Music. We had microphones, and the mic packs (the square-shaped part that connects to the actual mic with a wire) weren't picking up sound right. So they started putting condoms on the packs to help the sound quality. Well, we had a five year old in the show, and she came up to me, holding the condom from her microphone, and said, "What's this?" I deliberated for a minute before saying simply, "it's a special microphone pack cover." Poor little girl! Years from now when she sees a condom again, she'll think it's a mic-pack cover!

Maggie