Today I felt the need to share a short and sweet story from my childhood that involved a simple misunderstanding about the meaning of words and their abbreviations.
Let me first tell you the principle I developed and then I will tell you how I applied it and the social context it was applied in.
When I was young my family had a condo in Phoenix. I knew that condo was short for condominium, and I stored this knowledge away in my head for years until it subconsciously came back in 8th grade.
I was sitting in my Mrs. E's class for Homeroom and the school was planning a fundraiser, or a picnic, or another way to make us stay at school longer than 8-3 Monday - Friday. The committee was deciding what we needed and one of my peers said that we needed to make sure we had condiments for the picnic.
I was appalled! I could not believe that someone would bring condiments, let alone talk about it in public, to a picnic! I was also quite shocked that no one was using the abbreviated version of the word. Clearly, when you are that familiar with something you use the common abbreviation for it, condoms.
Condominiums is shortened to Condos, Condiments is shortened to Condoms. It totally made since in my little head.
The conversation continued and people signed up to bring ketchup, mustard, mayo, and relish. I left school a little scared and unsure of this picnic. I actually had no idea what a condom was, but I knew it was bad. (I am sure most 8th graders know what condoms are, and apparently they knew condiments were too. I just did not care to bother myself on such trivial matters).
I arrived to the picnic and stood in line to get a hotdog. One of the people preparing everything told me I could get my condiments on the side table. In innocent indignation I looked one of my classmates parents in the eyes and said, "No thank you! I only want mustard for my hotdog! You can keep your dirty condiments!"
Do you have any silly misunderstandings that happened when you were a child or just last week?
Aahahahahahahahaa!! That's too funny.
ReplyDeletehaha too awesome! crazy what little minds will come up with
ReplyDeleteomg, i remember in like 5th grade i heard someone talking about "condominiums" and i thought THAT was a condom hahaha!
ReplyDeleteHahahahahaha I am now dead hehehe
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, this is hilarious! This actually sounds like a misunderstanding I would have had too!
ReplyDeletehaha I most definitely knew what condoms were because me and my friend thought that we should buy them when we were in 7th grade (or around there) I am not sure why seeing as neither of us needed them but we thought it would be funny. I remember being so scared to go up to the register and get them thinking that I wasn't old enough and the cashier would want my ID!! haha the fun only lasted so long, my mom eventually found them and grounded me.
ReplyDeleteThis is priceless!
ReplyDeletehehehe that's pretty adorable!
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing the word condom for the first time on one of those soap stories. You know the Young and the Restless. I kept asking my mom what it meant over and over and she wouldn't answer me.
ReplyDeleteThat's hysterical! I used to think that serial killers were cereal killers--people who killed other people by poisoning their cereal. I always wondered why the victims didn't just not eat it!
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha dying.
ReplyDeletehahahaha!! I am so happy to know I am not the only person that thought that!! I had a mortifying experience with an actual condom though...I was about 10 or 11 and playing on the steps outside of our apartment and somebody had left a condom in the grass. I thought it was a ballon and started playing with it. A few minutes later my mom saw me and made me take a shower and started telling me to never touch one of those again. I have never brought it up to ask if it was used.
ReplyDeleteHaha- I never had anything quite like this, but for the longest time I always thought Chicago was a state (being from Minneapolis, you hear so much about Chicago that of course it had to be a state!)
ReplyDeleteLOL that's funny! I remember standing in front of my entire school-- my high school was private and consisted of 60 people-- I was reading an article out of the newspaper and misread a word as impotent and was just horrified whe I realized what I said. (after a few chuckles)
ReplyDeleteOMG that was fabulous. This is totally something I would have done as a kid... or now.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I wish I kept a crazy detailed journal form back then. I think I would laugh all the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was a memory that came back to me a different times, when I learned what a condiment was, when I learned what a condom was.
ReplyDeleteAh! Dont die!
ReplyDeletehahaha! It totally makes sense!
ReplyDeleteIt was crazy man! I never told anyone about it, because I thought condom was a cuss word.
ReplyDeleteOh youth! I miss it sometimes!
ReplyDeleteHA! that is crazy funny! my mom would have killed me if I did that hehe. Actually I might have just because I didn't know what they were.
ReplyDeleteSuch an easy solution for all the deaths!
ReplyDeleteHA! I know what you mean, those soaps are so educational....
ReplyDeleteI was just the most adorable child ever!
ReplyDeleteI love this story! I actually read it out loud at my family dinner last night, we all laughed pretty hard!
ReplyDeleteDont die!
ReplyDeleteHAHA! One girl in biology class said orgasm instead of organism. Everyone laughed, and I pretend to know what they were laughing at.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot of sense! I probably thought that too. You hear so much more about Chicago than Illinois anyway!
ReplyDeleteHA! I often have mix ups even into adulthood. I think they make my life more fun at least!
ReplyDeleteI total thought this story was gonna be you running around asking for condoms at the picnic. This story sounds less embarrassing.
ReplyDeletemylowercaselife.blogspot.com
hahaha! I am embarrassing but not that embarrassing!
ReplyDeleteFor your sake I'm glad. lol
ReplyDeleteHA! That's too funny!!
ReplyDeleteI have a funny story - The first time I went to Venezuela, I met one of my husband's uncles who wanted to practice his English with me. He asked me, "How do you like Tampax?" I was like, "Excuse me?" "How is Tampax?" Thinking I was surely misunderstanding him, I nudged my husband to translate. Sure enough, he was saying "Tampax", but he meant to say "Tampa". HAHAHAHA! To this day my husband and I joke about how much I like Tampax.
haha! This is a great story! I love cultural misunderstandings and the situation they happen in. hahaha!
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