Shattered illusions when you were very little?

Seeing Sea Monkeys in the pet shop window, the box was illustrated with a family of little monkey like creatures, it said when you put contents of box in water they came to life, I begged my Mum for them and was told NO, they don't look like that they are little tiny "shrimpy" looking things, I thought she was making it up so I couldn't have them, I seen them years later in water, my Mum was right?

Always remember you were special as your parents chose you as you were very much wanted.x

I used to sing the carol Good King "Wences last" looked out on the feast of Stephen and was shocked to find out I had got it wrong for some years and it should have been "Wenceslas". (I won't say what age I was when I found out - I can't remember anyway but I don't think I was all that young!!!)

When I was about 4, 1947 so not many toys available, my mother bought a raffle ticket for a doll. It was displayed in the window of a shop. I had no idea how raffles worked and was very disappointed when I didn't get the doll, as I had assumed it was a sure thing.

On a similar subject Gaggi3 my late grandad used to tell me a heartbreaking story about when he was a little boy.

From a very deprived background he and some other children were taken to a nearby church hall where a Christmas party was held for some of the poorest children. A huge Christmas tree stood in the corner covered in toys. there were trains, dolls and various other things. The children were put in a sort of queue and my grandad was first in line.

The Santa Claus asked him what he would like for christmas and never having ever had a toy, he dared to point to the train hanging on the tree and said "I would really like that train please Santa" the santa looked up to the tree and back down to the scruffy small boy and said "you are a greedy little boy and greedy boys get nothing".

He cried all the way home. his illusions of Santa well and truly smashed.

Another hymn-related one: it was years before I found out that “There is a green hill far away without a city wall” meant that the green hill was outside a city wall. I used to think the poor green hill was for some reason deprived of a city wall.

When I was very small I thought Once in Royal meant something like “Once upon a time”. “Once upon a time David’s city...stood a lowly cattle shed”. It didn’t seem to make sense.

Then there is always “Harold be thy name” in the Lord’s Prayer. OK, I didn’t think of that one. I read it somewhere.

I remember being shocked, aged about 12, to realise that our priests both smoked and drank! I spotted a cigarette packet in Fr. Murphy's shirt pocket!

My mother described any male passer by on the street as "the gentleman" . That illusion was very easily shattered for me in later life of course!

Hymns again: not a personal misunderstanding but one I heard on the radio-my favourite is, "There is a Green Hill Farnham Way"

I’ve just remembered that when I was about eight or nine I went to a ballet matinee with my mother and in the interval we went to the Ladies. There was a slot machine for “Sanitary towels”. I thought they would be some specially hygienic towel for drying our hands, and begged my mother to get us some. She hedged for some reason - quite a few people were listening - but I kept on asking. I thought it would be really nice, and anyway I liked using slot machines.. My poor mother was very embarrassed, and of course I had no idea why. I think she finally said she would explain when we got home, and I eventually shut up.

Grandma70s I also wanted to buy Sanitary Towels, they sounded so much better than the wet roller towel in public loos.
I was always bewildered by the sign “reduced to clear” and wanted to know how much “clear” was.

I remember my friend finding a packet of Lillets in her much older sisters room. We took them out of the packet and squeezed them between our toes

We were horrified when her sister explained what they were actually for and couldn't believe we had been in the front garden "wearing" them.

I always wondered what people meant when they said 'sleeping policeman' - daft little me expected to see a long elongated policeman laying along the centre of the road!

For many years I thought I was singing a nonsense song which went something like 'Mairsie dotes and Dosey dotes and little Amsy tyvie. A tiddley ivy too wouldn't you'. Actual words 'Mares eat oats and Does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid will eat ivy too. Wouldn't you'. I would be so embarrassed to tell you how mature I was before I discovered this.

Brilliant Kim19 I thought it was only me !

JudyPark wild frontier! That is hilarious!!!

I was very upset, as an avid watcher of 'Animal Magic' to discover that the animals at Bristol Zoo didn't talk like they did on TV (I was 4 or 5 at the time)

I so recall Princess Alexandra coming to open our new school, I was probably around 12 so should have known better, but was disappointed that she didn't make more of an effort to look a little like a Princess.
A tiara or something.....very disappointed.

Why, because Y's a crooked letter and you can't straighten it!

Gillybob - your poor grandfather, how some pompous cruel man in a red suit do that to a little boy? ?

I think it was probably when Harold MacMillan was PM that I realised I should not be praying "Our Father who art in heaven Harold be thy name"

On the subject of hymns my father told me when he was little there was a boy in his class called Abel Lever. They all looked at him with i terest when they sang How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in Abel Lever's ear.

gillybob your post about your father made me feel so sad about how adults can quickly misunderstand and be sooo cruel. Then your lillets toes post made me laugh out loud! Not something that happens to me very often, thanks!

The sanitary towel story reminds me of a girl I knew who went home to find her much younger twin sisters with sanitary towels looped round each ear and tied under their chins pretending they were beards, like father Christmas. Hymns - let us with a glass of mild, instead of let us with a gladsome mind!

Gillybob - Sorry, your father.