At one point in high school I worked part time at a book store, setting up their comic department. I (obviously) knew they had a huge porn section, and I figured that was how they were doing well enough to stay in business. It wasn't until years after - when rumors and an arrest - that I discovered that they were selling drugs the entire time, and the owner's girlfriend was actually selling "something else entirely" in the back. I didn't have a clue.
So it probably shouldn't be too surprising that it took until last night, on the bus ride home, that I finally figured out why I was seeing so much loose tobacco on the floor (and sometimes the seat) of the bus I ride.
It was always just really weird... and disgusting. But I chalked it up to "weird things you see on the bus".
But last night I sat behind a guy who took out of pack of cheap cigars, unwrapped them, dumped the tobacco out on the floor and put the wrapper into a zip-lock bag. I'd like to say that I immediately knew what he was doing. But it took me a little bit even then to figure out that he was most likely going to be using that cigar wrapper to wrap up something he had at home.
I *didn't* consider that he might just have a "cheap cigar wrapper" collection. Which, being me, should probably be considered progress! ;)
What are some things that YOU figured out - after the fact?
(One of my all-time favorites was from my ex, who as a child, was told that pepperoni came from a tree - and never questioned it until she was in her teens. :D)
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One thing that you need to make sure you are figuring out is making sure your entries are in: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/913429.html The deadline is tomorrow!
Comments
One of my dad's business associates was married but had a mistress. The mistress always accompanied the associate on vacations, which included the big shindig we had every summer down the Cape (I was the only kid, let's not get into that). Anyway...I had no idea. I thought they were married and had kids because the associate was always talking about them. I remember overhearing something, not believing it, and asking my mother about it. Then I remember listening in to a conversation "The Adults" were having as to how to handle my knowing The Truth.
I don't think it mattered to me. I loved the mistress because she was very nice to me and we'd sometimes play a board game. She suddenly passed when I was in high school, not too soon after my dad passed. We lost track of that particular business associate soon after.
AW
It explains a lot that I was clueless about in the 1970s.
My mom was also clueless till 1984. Then they got divorced.
AW
My realization is minor: I was thirty-four years old before I realized the name "Liam" came from William.
S-M-R-T
He was throwing away everything inside of the wrapper, not just filter paper.
I'm trying not to LOL re the Liam but I can understand that, especially if you didn't grow up in the center of the Irish American universe like some people :cough cough:
(In my defense, I know basically no one named William, so...)
:listens to her own echo:
I think everyone hates those people!!
This was at BYU, though, and I was barely 17, so my perspective was perhaps understandably more naive than you might expect.
LOL, I used to think the same thing!
I used to believe in a ton of things that had no basis in reality.
I still tend to be too trusting for my own good.