Another thread about cluelessness

[alpinerabbit]

I remember a girl at my church in AL who was date raped. she got morning sickness. she had no idea why. she kept the baby.

[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!

[Possegal]

I'm still waiting for my mom to tell me where babies come from! & bless her heart she died in '99.

ditto for my mum, died in 99 never having uttered a word. as she told my older sister when she asked was my mum going to mention anything to me - "oh don't worry, the nuns are going to explain it, i signed the permission slip".

God love her and man i miss her.

[Possegal]

my aunt was very proud of a plant she had in her yard, one she thought my cousin had planted. my sister and i looked at each other and cracked up. it was a marijuana plant. but my aunt was right, it was growing like mad!

[JaneE]

A funny tangent to this topic is mis-heard song lyrics.

Anyone familiar with www.kissthisguy.com ? If you're in need of a good laugh you're sure to find a few there!

I was a grown, married, woman (early 80s) when I finally realized (or, more precisely, someone *told* me) that Elvis Presley wasn't singing: "Return December."

No, my family will NEVER let me live that down.

[Crankin]

Mimi, my mother in law told my husband the same thing about getting pregnant by "sleeping" together. He said for years he thought something happened automatically in your sleep, like maybe magic pajamas?
Me, on the other hand, seemed to know all the facts by the time I was 7. I rarely was clueless in school/social situations, but when I was on my first teaching job, I had a crush on the school psychologist; that is until someone told me he was gay. I wasn't unaware of this stuff in 1977, but it just didn't occur to me.

[shootingstar]

I'm sure most of us have stories of cluelessness about skeletons and achievements of family members that we learned much later...

*I was sitting on a transit bus a few years ago. As bus moved along, I saw a woman jogging ahead, quickly and smoothly. And then I caught a glimpse of her face..it was one of my sisters. I had no idea ..she jogged that well. Then later that month she ran a marathon.

*One day a nephew, when he was around 11 yrs. old, was practicing on his electric keyboard piano. Then my father joined him by tapping a few keys with him..he did abit more. It stunned my sister (mother of the nephew) since she ..and no one else in my family knew my father had any muscial ability.

So Dad admitted he did play a Chinese musical instrument when he was in high school. He used to play jam sessions with some buddies in their leisure time. Thereafter he completed abandoned playing any musical instrument. Now, you have got to realize that this is the same father who did not want me to take art classes or even pursue anything art oriented at college/university. (Despite endless hrs. of tearful debate, I did stuff my high school curriculum with over 6 art courses.) After all these years of saying how wasteful, financially risky, a fine arts education would be, then finding out that dear father had this secret boyhood skill... It was a revelation to learn of this facet about my father, when I was in my mid-30's.

[carpaltunnel]

I don't think many moms told their daughters the facts of life in the small town where I grew up. I remember the day all the Girl Scouts in town went to the library basement to watch a film, "Susan Grows Up". Not many afterward said they all ready knew about that.
Anyone remember that film?

[indigoiis]

My mom didn't know I could cook.

She still says, when she visits, "wow. You can cook. I had no idea."

[Aggie_Ama]

My mom didn't realize I would love to bake. She doesn't remember me baking cakes and cookies with my dad when I was little (she worked two jobs). Granted it was mix and now I am more creative with making things from scratch.

[lauraelmore1033]

When I was little, a boy dog knocked me down and did that naughty thing boy dogs will do on my legs. Having just recently been told the fact of life, I thought I was going to have puppies soon.

shortly after the above mentioned incident, having had the facts of life clarified a bit further by a book at the book store, I proudly shared my new found knowledge to the crowd gathered at the zoo to watch a pair of chimpanzees mating: "The one on top is the boy", I said. I wondered why my mother quickly slid the sunglasses off the top of her head, hiding her eyes, and melted away into the crowd.

[crazycanuck]

Did anyone ever read Judy Blume's books when they were younger? Are You There God It's Me Margaret or Deenie ???

[jesvetmed]

Did anyone ever read Judy Blume's books when they were younger? Are You There God It's Me Margaret or Deenie ???

I haven't heard of Deenie, but I did read the Me Margaret! We used to hide in the bathroom stalls and read the highlighted pages and giggle and say "GROOOSS!"!

I just came across a new book named, "Are you there, Vodka, it's me Chelsie"! Ha... now that is funny.