What words or concepts did you misunderstand as a child?

When I was a child I thought ‘cannon’ and ‘canyon’ were the same word, and if someone said “that word” I would ask did they mean the kind you can buy in a store (meaning a cannon, for some reason.)

I thought that The Beatles were miniature people singing from inside our huge speaker cabinet.

I thought hippies were magical creatures like elves, gnomes or fairies, that they all had long hair, went barefoot and lived outdoors. I would tell my best friend, who believed the same thing, that I had once spotted a band of hippies in the park and we were both awed by this “supernatural” encounter.
Photo Credit: Pixabay royalty free. Photographer: Free-Photos

I thought that only married couples had sex, and only did it once for each child at the doctor’s office under his guidance. Yes, I thought it was a medical procedure.
Photo Credit: Pixabay royalty free. Photographer: PublicDomainPictures

Because my mother’s friend who was Chinese and spoke Chinese (Mandarin) lived in a nearby town called Hightstown I thought that Chinese was the language they spoke in the next town over from us in New Jersey.

We used to go on vacation in Santa Barbara when I was a child and we'd rent a house in a residential neighborhood, so I would make new friends with children on our block. One year when I was around 5 we got to our new rental house and I went outside and met some kids. One girl excitedly invited me to the bonfire they were having on the beach. I was horrified and ran to warn my parents that someone was going to be setting off a "BOMB-fire" that night and we had better stay several blocks away to avoid being injured.