reading

In the 1930s and 1940s, Virginia Lee Burton wrote and illustrated children's books about anthropomorphic vehicles. There was a steam shovel named Mary Anne, a snow plow named Katy, a cable car named Maybelle, and others.

Several of these stories were collected in a book called something like "Tales of Modern Machinery". (The copy I read to pieces when I was little was probably an original printing that one of my parents had owned since childhood.) I'd never heard the word "modern", before, but I deduced from this book that it meant "old fashioned". Those vehicles looked like the ones in the old photo albums from when my grandparents were newlyweds...

Brenda

As a small child I was fascinated by all kinds of signs and notices, including fire safety notices in hotel rooms and public buildings. It said what to do if you discovered a fire, and I used to confuse the two types of fire (i.e. as in a heater versus as in an arson attack). I remember once seeing a notice saying “in case of fire…”, and there was a heater nearby so I said “Here’s a fire”.

Alan, Sheffield

I used to believe fantasy books told real stories

samantha401

When I was in kindergarten we got a new computer (windows 3.1 primitve by todays standards) anyway, it came with a gane tha thad mario in it, although, I can't remember what the game was. Anyway, once, when I was learning to read, I was sitting next to my older brother while he did somethign on the computer, while I tried to read the word "Mario" on the floppy disk that game came on. Well, needless to say, I falied and instead said, somehow managed to say "Mubbery" (like "rubbery" or "srubbery") instead. So, my brother instantly burst out laughing and he told my other older brother (who just got a new cat) and he liked it...so they named the cat "Mubbery". That cat lived for years and peopel would always wonder why on Gods green Earth why anyone would name a cat such a stupid word. I have a strange family.......

Stupid, inbred redneck from Kansas.

I used to think that the mangled abridgement HAZCHEM was German for "Danger" as it appeared next to the word on the sign.

joey_gambles

For some reason, in the book "The Restraunt at the end of the Galaxy" (sequel to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), I thought until pretty recently (I'm 16) that Trillian, the female in the book, was a giant centipede. heh...

Yami kami

I used to believe the word "relax" wasn't a real word until I turned 16 after I found this word in the dictionary. I read a newspaper when I was about 6 and I asked my mom to define "relax", she said it was not a word at all and it was just a total slang. I suppose she was just too lazy to define.

Alexa

I used to believe that if I saw or thought of the words 'to be continued' a man in white overalls and hat would go underneath my bed and paint the words underneath my bed. It scared me to see that saying.

Alisa J

As a little kid in pre-war New Guinea, my parents would read out the eagerly awaited letters from family in Australia - "Grandma asks if you are being a good boy, and Sport (her dog) still likes to play", - and so on. So I knew early that those marks on the paper meant real words, but I wanted to talk to Grandma too, and would scribble on bits of paper while carefully shouting out my message (I knew she was a long way away). But I thought it had to be like a conversation, so I would have to invent Grandma's reply and shout and scribble that too. But if I had to know what her answer would be before "writing" it down, what was the point in asking the question? I was a logical if rather confused child. Things haven't changed much.

Swanny

This is for my oldest sister. Our family went out to eat to an Italian restaurant and, while reading the menu, she asked my mother what "Lensquata" was. It turns out it was Lasagna, she misinterpreted the cursive writing. It was pretty sad since she wasn't a child when she said that.

Spooky

I read books avidly as a kid and was always awaiting the Library doors to open. I was born in 1943.

I always had a problem with two words. For years I pronounced 'Slough' as 'Sluf' and also 'Hugh' (a hero in one of my books) as 'Huff'. I suppose I had learnt to pronounce Rough and assumed the other words corresponded.

Penny

I used to think that Horoscopes were actually Horror-scopes, and I never wanted to read mine because I didn't want to know what horrors I would be encountering in the near future.

PS

I used to believe that the word sickle was short for popsicle. "He cut the grass with a sickle," would mean a guy cut some grass eating a popsicle - like on a hot day perhaps? Made sense to me at the time.

Popsicle kid

When I was little I never understood why adults liked to read. I thought that all the read were information books or dictionary/thesaurus... I never knew they actually had fiction books! Not until I was about 10!

Bekkie O.