Many things in life take a lot of time to learn. While some things seem obvious to a few individuals, others have different life experiences, so it takes them longer to gain that knowledge. Even the most “basic” things take time for some people to learn and know. It all depends on our life and our life’s journey.
Recently, people on Reddit shared the “basic facts” it took them a really long time to learn.
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Snow is only nice for like a hot second.
One person said that they grew up in a desert area and never saw snow in real life, so they assumed it was always “nice and enchanting” like in cartoons.
Then, they visited family and saw that snow turns black/brown and gross after literally a day.
Marshmallows do not grow on trees.
“Not me, but my father once stole into the woods during a family camping trip and put marshmallows on a bush, so it looked like they grew on it.
My sister made it to post secondary horticulture before she wised up,” one person said.
Yelling around baking can cause a ruined cake.
Another Reddit user said that in college, they were baking a cake and got mad when their roommates were running around being loud.
They were taught as a child that if you’re “making loud noises or running around a kitchen when something was baking would make it fall.”
Anything can be pickled.
“One day I had a lightbulb moment. “Pickling is a process! You can pickle anything. SO WHAT ARE PICKLES?!?” I was gonna blow so many minds with this question. Turns out, it’s cucumbers. And everyone on the planet knew that, except me,” one person shared.
The Black Market is not a real place.
Another user said it took forever to understand and realize that the Black Market is not a real place that you can go shop at.
It’s just a name for illegal items.
Hair grows from the scalp, not the ends.
“I truly believed that for the longest time that hair grew from the ends of the strands, not from the scalp. When I was 13 I asked my friend who had dyed her hair what she was going to do when the ends grew her natural colour,” another said.
The handicap sign is a person in a wheelchair.
A Reddit user said that they did not realize for a very long time that the handicap sign, usually on handicap parking spots and parking signs, is a person in a wheelchair.
They had thought it was just a “cute symbol.”
The whole “turn your head and cough.”
“I was in my mid 30s before I realized that the ‘turn your head’ part of ‘turn your head and cough’ was so that you didn’t cough on the damned doctor. I always thought it must’ve flexed some particular muscle or something, I don’t know,” another wrote.
Space heaters have a specific name.
One person said that they did not realize that “space heaters” were named space heaters because they heat up a specific space or room.
They had assumed they were called space heaters because they look like things from outer space.
Mispronouncing everyday sayings.
“I incorrectly said “the brist of it” instead of the gist of it. I used that phrase in conversation for years until one day when I was nearly 30 got corrected by a Jehovah’s Witness that came to my door and asked me if I ever read the Bible,” one shared.
Cars start without specific things.
One person said that growing up, their mom always told them that the car does not start unless everyone buckled all of their seatbelts.
In fact, they were 22 when they finally realized that cars don’t work that way.
Knowing what a “doobie” is.
“When I was young, I found a Doobie brothers cd at a relatives. I asked my mom what a Doobie is. She said it’s a lady’s private part and to never say it. I was 17 before I saw someone call a joint a Doobie,” one person said on Reddit.
Reindeer are real.
One person shared that they had absolutely no idea that reindeer were real animals.
They thought that because Father Christmas was not real, that meant that reindeer were also not real, too. They were shocked when they saw one in real life.
The whole pool chemical isn’t real.
“There’s no chemical in the pool that reveals pee. A buddy and I were talking about it and we both realized at the same time that nether of us have actually SEEN it. We looked it up and felt dumb as hell,” one person shared.
How the digestive system works.
“I thought that when you ate, all the food piled up from your feet and then when it reached your butt, you went poop
No clue where it came from but I believed it far longer than I should have,” one person said.
How to read a weather report.
When you look at your weather app and it says there’s a 30% P.O.P. , that doesn’t mean that there’s a 70% chance of sunshine — not exactly, at least. What it means is that there is a 100% chance of rain in 30% of the forecasted area.
“My 31 year-old girlfriend thought islands don’t touch the bottom of the ocean.”
This would be totally understandable for a child to think this way, but a 31-year-old adult? I’m not so sure. Didn’t they ever wonder what kept Cuba from floating all over the map?
It turns out that bread crusts don’t have more nutrients.
“My grandma always made me eat the crust of my bread because “it has the most nutrients.” In college when I told my younger cousin that in front of my Grandma, she laughed and said “I only told you that so you wouldn’t waste the crust.” – Reddit u/BlanketsAndBlankets
The key word in “cupcake” is…
Redditor teerannosaurus walked up and down the baking aisle countless times in an effort to find cupcake mix. Until it dawned on them that cupcakes are essentially just smaller versions of cake.
Your throat isn’t supposed to close up when you eat an apple.
Let me be clear on this: your throat isn’t supposed to close up after you eat anything at all. If this is happening to you, stop what you’re eating and call your family doctor.
A pony is a classification of a horse — not a baby horse.
Mind-blowing stuff, right? Baby horses have several names but are most often referred to as foals or weanlings. As they get older, male horses are typically called colts and females are fillys.
Pickles are cucumbers.
Pickles don’t just magically grow on trees. Cucumbers become pickles through the process of pickling .
You put the cucumbers in a jar with water, add salt, vinegar, sugar, and dill. Five days later, you’ll be in quite the pickle!
The Rolling Stones and *Rolling Stone* are not one and the same.
“It took me an embarrassingly long time before I realized that when a movie had a blurb from Rolling Stone…it wasn’t The Rolling Stones reviewing it.” – Reddit u/therickeffect1
Semantics can be a real pain in the butt.
“My dad’s not a native English speaker and he calls bungee cords strap-ons,” Redditor punkterminator explained. “He once asked a poor, unsuspecting Home Depot employee where to find a pack of heavy duty[sic] strap-ons.”
Why are there no number 10 birthday candles?
It’s the weirdest thing, the store only seems to have numbers 0-9 but no 10! Why on earth would they stop, plenty of people celebrate their birthday after they turn nine.
Oh, wait… never mind.
“Aged 40 I found out that Segway and Segue are different words.”
A segue is a linguistic tool that helps you link or abridge thoughts and ideas. On the other hand, a Segway is an annoying two-wheeled contraption that you see tourists riding around on in high-traffic areas.
Loud noises don’t effect the snowfall.
When Redditor So_very_blessed was in elementary school, their teacher used to say that if the class made any noise at all, then the snow falling outside would stop.
They went on believing that for decades.
Dandelions aren’t just yellow.
“In college, i[sic] had a tough time trying to convince a friend that yellow dandelion flowers were the same as the white puff balls[sic]. I had to find a plant that had both stages coming from the same base.” – Reddit u/unknown
Dish soap and dish detergent can’t be used interchangeably.
The liquid Dawn or Sunlight that you use to wash dishes by hand is not the kind of soap that you want to load your dishwasher with.
Unless you want to spend hours cleaning suds and bubbles, that is.
Don’t microwave metal.
“Ok, breaking out the alt account for this one,” wrote Redditor forponderings. “I am 25 years old. I have 2 degrees and I live on my own. I didn’t learn until a few days ago that microwaving metal might start a fire.”
Vinegar won’t dry out your body.
Angrypenguinwaddle96 used to think that if you put too much vinegar on your fries, your entire body would dry up. In reality, their mother was just trying to keep them from draining the vinegar supply on a weekly basis.
