Another thread about cluelessness

[crazycanuck]

I was just reading a thread on a music board i frequent & they're discussing things that went way over your head way back when. I didn't want to steal Shootingstar's post..

I have a few...

In Jr High, we had a rather frightening/great math teacher but we loved him because he gave us twizzlers & was amazingly sarcastic. I always wondered why he drank so much coffee or wandered out to get coffee. I learnt many moons later (after high school) that he was an alcoholic..

I didn't know that our language arts teacher was gay?

I thought I was the only abnormal teen in Jr High/High school..then found out that everyone else's family was in the same boat or even worse.

Music..some of my favourite songs went way over my head...

"The Relfex" is about drug addiction? "Come Undone" is about suicide
"All you zombies" is about the cold war..
"She Bop"
"Magic Carpet Ride"... basically anything from the 60's..
"Hold me now" "
"Tell me more"from Grease..I didn't pay attention to the lyrics when I was younger but now know..


Any more clueless memories?

[Pax]

Layla -

I didn't know I was gay in high school...it just never even occurred to me. Can you say obtuse?

[Aggie_Ama]

My grandfather never talked about high school, it never occured to me it was because he didn't get to go. I learned when I hurt his feelings by badgering him about which high school he went to.

I didn't know what I was smelling at the middle school bus stop!

There is a lot of songs over time I have learned the true meaning of.

I didn't realize my Calculus teacher was gay. He referred to his partner "bob" (or some male name), I thought they had a side business. A couple years later then wandered hand in hand into my work.

I was totally clueless that someone in my husband's family was a meth addict and often high. I just thought they were quirky.

I am usually quite dense though, I am used to it.

[alpinerabbit]

Before I spoke decent English, I had no clue what exactly Frank Zappa's song "Bobby Brown" was about. I just liked the song.

also, I thought "Rocky Horror Picture Show" was pretty innocuous fun. Yeah I got that it was about "initiation", but had no idea it might offend people.

At least twice I was clueless about someone having a crush on me. But that evens out with my having eternal crushes on several guys.

[mimitabby]

I started out clueless, but life taught me to grow up fast.

when i was in 8th grade, the kids had a field day with me because i did not know the slang words that most kids knew. I knew the long proper words, (thanks mom) but had no idea that pricks were body parts, etc.



as a sophomore, a teacher asked us if anyone in our families had a drinking problem. I was living with a detested drunk stepfather at the time and I raised my hand. NO ONE ELSE DID. Humiliated and infuriated, i turned to my class and said, "you mean NONE of you have a family member that drinks too much?" no one would look at me.

I knew my trigometry teacher was gay when I was a senior. I despised the way he flirted with innocent boys. I had the same disgust for the handsome young chemistry teacher who acted like he was buddies to the "in crowd" in our classroom. Imagine my disappointment when i went back to my highschool 30 years later and he was the only teacher left that was there when I was.

[redrhodie]

When I was about to leave my old job, I found out one of my coworkers had dated our boss before either of us had started working there. I had no idea! It made some of the company dynamics a lot more clear!

[indigoiis]

When I first got into raising alpacas, our mentors kept talking about "spit tests" to determine pregnancy. I didn't know what the heck they were talking about - do the animals spit on a progesterone card? Do we collect spit and then run a test on it?

I found out after I conjectured, in front of a lot of other farmers, the above theory. Everyone laughed. Then we went out to witness a "real" spit test. All it is is bringing in a male alpaca to the paddock, and if a female spits at him, she's 95% of the time preggers.

Boy was my face red.

[shootingstar]

also, I thought "Rocky Horror Picture Show" was pretty innocuous fun. Yeah I got that it was about "initiation", but had no idea it might offend people.

Well, I'm still clueless about this one.
I am not aware of any teachers as gay. I'm still clueless.

*We had a high school math teacher that was an alcoholic. He didn't hide it. He kept his bottle of booze in his top desk drawer. This caused great amusement amongst us at that time: the guy must have been clueless-drunk to do that.

*When I was in my early 20's, I went to a wedding shower of a good friend. A guest was in a wheelchair. She was a lovely, gracious person. After the party, I found out she was transsexual. The first transsexual I had personally met. I haven't met one since...but then I might be clueless...once again.

*When I was in kindergarten and not knowing English at all. First month was awful. After school, the (white) boys taunted me and called me: "Jap" and tripped me. Pitched stones at me. It was 1964. After awhile, they stopped, when I befriended some gals. (Or I should say, they wanted to protect me.) For the next 10 yrs., I never understood why they flung the term at me: "Jap" since I was Chinese. Then I figured out later, this must have been hangover of fear/resentment of the Japanese-Canadians/Americans during WWII and how they were misunderstood, relocated to camps, etc. I didn't know about this part of North American history until I was 18. Clueless, yes. Humilated and yes, abit traumatized as a child...when other people are cruelly clueless to others.

*When I was 19, found out my work supervisor was gay and in love with another floor supervisor. I had no clue ...and same for many other women employed there also. This was at a retail store. They announced their love..and broke up not long thereafter.

*I've told this story on TE forums under a different topic, but here it is again:
My parents bought their lst house, a dilapidated place with a backyard. During our lst spring, we noticed this huge low bush of large leaves with red stalk. We hacked up the bush since it had to be a pesky weed. But it kept growing back every spring. Several YEARS later we found out we had several bushes of ...rhubarb growing.

[indigoiis]

That last story reminds me of when I worked in a b&b in a tourist town. Two German tourists came and I gave them a map and directions to the Cliff Walk. They came back with armfulls of a lovely, shiny leaved green vine that they intended to use to make wreaths. I looked at the plants and told them I thought they were poison ivy. Sure enough, next day they were both covered in raw, pink welts. D'OH!