language: speaking

Two things. My brother thought "gaining" and "gagging" were interchangeable, but he'd use the wrong. For instance, running ahead of me down the stairs he would shout back, "I'm gagging on you."

Up until just a few years ago, I'm 29, I thought cartwheel was named after a gymnast rather that it being named after how it looks when you do it comparing to an actual cartwheel. In my defense there are a lot of gymnastic and skating moves named after the first people who did them, but that doesn't stop friends and family from chuckling, "Oh, like Bob Cartwheel?"

When I was a kid my teacher said, "Children, if you feel the need to vomit, just go immediately to the bathroom -- you do not have to ask me for permission first." I always thought that she said "bomb-it" for vomit. It made perfect sense to me because that's exactly what happens when you throw up. It wasn't until third grade that I actually learned the true spelling of the word.

On a road trip through California countryside, I pointed out a beautiful hillside of orange Poppies..."Where, Where?" my 2 year old frantically demanded, "I can't see the orange puppies!!" It reminded me of the time when I was a kid on a trip with my family. My dad pointed out a Baskin Robbins, and my MOTHER said "I don't see any basking robins!" And she was serious, too!

When I was 8 or 9, I thought my mom went to choir practice every week. I thought that was strange, since she couldn't sing, and we didn't even belong to a church. It wasn't until years later that I figured out that she was going to the chiropractor.

When I was little I thought that everyone said spaghetti wrong. I said pasghetti instead; my family humored me and said pasghetti as well. This went on until I was about 7 or 8. I was a weird kid...

when I was very little and I did something I thought was particularly clever my brother used to say very quickly; 'What do you want a medal or a chest to put it on' I thought he was saying 'chester pudding' and eventually asked my mother what one of these was.

i used to think that everyone talked like americans, that no one really had an accent - they were just talking funny to be amusing. i guess this all started when i heard the beatles sing on the radio, and then heard them talking to the interviewer or whatever - they sounded "american" when they sang, but not when they were just talking. yah, i was weird...

I used to get really mixed up between the words 'soldiers' and 'shoulders' to the extent that I had a fixation with the eppilettes on the shoulders of all of my Dad's friends. (My Dad was in the forces - so that didn't help really!)

There was a news reporter ( still is )
whose name was Joyce Kulhawik. By the way it was pronounced, and never seeing it in print, I always thought her name
was JOYCEKUL HAWIK

When I heard the phrase "there's no rest for the wicked" when I was very young, I thought that it meant that wicked people get very little rest because there are so many wicked things that need doing. I believed that for many years.

I used to believe (until 2 years ago, I'm 25) that the word excavator was pronounced "ex-cav-a-gat-or". I have other words I could never pronounce right either. My family still makes fun of me...

When my third child was about 2 years old, she was having a fit in the car because she was hungry. I told her to wait, that when we got home I would give her somthing to "Tide her over", meaning to stave off her hunger til dinner-time. Silence. A moment later, she let out a wail of such grief and fear, and she began to sob hysterically. "What's the matter, honey?" I asked, quite concerned. Between sobs, I discovered she was afraid I was going to tie her up, and so she pleaded with me...."Please, mommy, don't tie me over, please don't tie me over!"

As a child I did a great impersonation of Mae West saying "come up and see me sometime!" with the hip wiggle and all. My parents told me I should bat my eyes when I did it too. I got into charecter, wiggled my hips, said the phrase, removed my glasses and began hitting myself in the eyes.

I was working on a science book report in third grade and decided that liquid and liquor must mean the same thing since they looked similar so I used them interchangeably much to the pleasure of my teacher.

When I was a kid, I just couldn't understand why we were human beans. We weren't long and green and stringy and we didn't look terribly edible...it was an enormous mystery to me...

I was always in trouble in one form or another, and hated having to apoligize. One day I decided that I'd get all my "I'm sorrys" out of the way and skipped around our neighborhood singing 'I'm sorry' over and over again so I wouldn't have to say it what I was angry. Too bad that one didn't work.