What did you discover relatively late on in life that everyone else had known for years?

Ooh, I didn't know about the fuel gauge thing either, PageTurner. Thanks for this: I must check when I get into the car.

That twisting a rubber band around a jar lid helps prise it off easily.

That mashing potatoes is so much easier if you gradually rotate the panful rather than randomly mashing them. And to put the butter in first so it melts - milk last!

That is best not to bring up difficult or contentious topics after 9pm.

That it’s so much easier to use a facial scrub whilst in the shower rather than splashing it off over a sink. It’s actually a pleasure to use one now!

When packing put small items inside shoes and always keep medication in your hand luggage in case your luggage goes missing.

Keep a mini umbrella inside a small plastic bag so that once used it doesn’t make everything damp in your bag afterwards.

he hadn't known that lambs were baby sheep

What on earth did he think they were??!

That everyone else knew that my X was at..t
and I was the last to know.

I learned not to talk so much. Trying to be more 'enigmatic' not doing too well.
Watch this, I'll say no more...

Same here with petrol gauge sign!

I heard Tomasz Shafernaker the weather man saying on TV that until a film shoot he went on in Wales, he hadn't known that lambs were baby sheep!!!

I didn't know the correct pronunciation of canapes till I was mid twenties

So when do coconuts turn brown and hairy? Is it beneath the green outer shell as in your picture Bradford Lass?

I was shocked rigid to discover that marmite is suitable for vegans.
For almost 60 years I have believed it was made with beef extract.......?

This is probably the most educational thread I have read on GN. About the only thing I knew was"Chicks for free".

I'm 75 so most of you are well ahead of me.

Chewbacca I thought it was "kicks for free"
I thought in the Hollies song "He ain't heavy" that "His welfare is my concern" was "He's wearing his mackinson". I thought it was a type of coat.
I too discovered the petrol thing about a year ago. I'm 68!

I was living in the South Pacific (early 70's) before I knew coconuts did not fall from the tree brown and hairy - as some children's books actually portray.

I was 70 before I heard the expression 'dental dam' let alone knew what it meant.

And it's probably 20 years since I read that 'amazed' meant more or less what it says, 'as if in a maze' - confused, perplexed.

I had left university before I knew how to pronounce “hyperbole” and “epitome”.

PageTurner, I just ran out to the garage and checked my car's gas gauge and I don't have an icon on the left but I DO have a little arrow pointing to the left from the pump icon in the center. I've had this car for eleven years and never noticed it OR an icon in any other car, for that matter! Now I'm going to be checking them all! I've spent YEARS getting out of cars to look!

Ah yes, Chapel. Instead of my cup being full and running over, mine was full of Ronnie Molar, my little pal from school.

my dear friend, a child in wartime, well=behaved, placid, compliant, his mother led him to chapel, with her employer on whom they were dependent, and would sing of political factions, such as,
do you know Cynthia blackshirt...
no hymn books, very basic, chapel barely more than a rustic out-building, welsh hills. 12 persons max.
he didn't know who or what she was so thought no more about it. the whole place and culture was puzzling to him.
40 yrs later he tried church, London. one day heard a familiar tune and with benefit of hymn book found himself singing, do no sinful action, ...

That Andrea Bocelli was blind.

That in Golden Brown, the Stranglers didn't lie down with their mancheros, who I'd assumed were something like their compadres.

That pineapples don't grow on trees.

I never knew that there is a little gas pump icon on the side of the fuel guage on a car's dashboard to tell you on which side of the car the filler tube is located. Hallelujah !!!
I always had to get out of the car to look??

I was trying to come up with something similar to what others posted because I know that there are several items I was fascinated to learn just lately. For the life of me, though, I can't remember what they are. Grrr, this memory thing is the pits.

tat that

This type of thing could have its own thread but I just realized last week tat Elton John was singing "alter bound" and not "hauled about" in "Someone Saved My Life Tonight".

seconds out ! round two. at a wrestling/ boxing bout.
I'd assumed it was an old/American way of saying, time's up. ie the time of the interval had expired, resume action.
my brother recently informed me that it referred to seconds, as in duel-ing, ie the supporter/assistant of the contenders. so time for them to quit the ring. makes sense, but I still have the original understanding stuck in my muddled mind.

I never knew that AllotmentLil!

The the Beat in Beatles was a reference to the beat in music!