From the "Well, this is embarrassing" department...

frimble3

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It's one of those questions to ponder: did we become readers because stuff to read was available, or did a fledgling interest in reading lead our parents to think "Get her something to read!".

Like eyesight: did we 'ruin' our eyes reading, or did we read because our eyesight was bad, and it was easier to see stuff up close?
 

MaryMumsy

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re the 1960 encyclopedias: at least 20 years ago my Mom bought me a complete set of 1932 encyclopedias at the sale at the small town library where they wintered. She knew I had a thing for books, especially old books. They have pride of place on my bookshelves. Occasionally I'll pull one out just to see what was the conventional wisdom at the time.

I learned how to read, really read, in first grade. By second grade I was a goner. Mom used to joke that I'd read soup can labels and the backs of cereal boxed if nothing else was available. I still read at least one book a week.

MM
 

RedRajah

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He's been asked if he has any "New Mexico money" on him. (He humors them and pulls out a US dollar, causing much confusion.)

Clearly he was expecting green & red chiles ;)
 

frimble3

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I learned how to read, really read, in first grade. By second grade I was a goner. Mom used to joke that I'd read soup can labels and the backs of cereal boxed if nothing else was available. I still read at least one book a week.

MM
My experience was similar.

I'm surprised that none of the cereal brands have thought to make use of all that carton space. Bits of educational stuff, Ripley's Believe It Or Not. The 'times' tables. Even the alphabet!
I remember in 'Cheaper by the Dozen' that the father posted stuff on the walls, like the Morse Code signals. The intent was not to 'study' them, but that just by repetition, it would sink in.
I learned French off the ingredients listing on Canadian cereal boxes - easy to figure out once you realise that the ingredients were in the same order in either language.

Braille, sign language, world facts. Names of the presidents, or kings, or states, or oceans.
 

Larry M

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... I learned how to read, really read, in first grade. By second grade I was a goner. Mom used to joke that I'd read soup can labels and the backs of cereal boxed if nothing else was available. I still read at least one book a week.

MM

Similar for me. Besides reading cereal boxes and such, I started collecting baseball cards in first grade. Part of my quick development as a reader involved reading the front and back of every baseball card I owned.
 
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MontyBurr

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I tried to pay for my Washington state bridge toll pass at their office last year. I tried to give them $40 in US dollar coins. I was told they didn't accept casino money. Two supervisors got involved. Three annoyed customers chimed in on my side. They called the Department of Transportation in Olympia the conversation took a couple of minutes.

One of my fellow customers posted a video.

Do my fellow writers in Canada get flack for coin payment. Gotta love Canadian coins
 

Brightdreamer

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My experience was similar.

I'm surprised that none of the cereal brands have thought to make use of all that carton space. Bits of educational stuff, Ripley's Believe It Or Not. The 'times' tables. Even the alphabet!
I remember in 'Cheaper by the Dozen' that the father posted stuff on the walls, like the Morse Code signals. The intent was not to 'study' them, but that just by repetition, it would sink in.
I learned French off the ingredients listing on Canadian cereal boxes - easy to figure out once you realise that the ingredients were in the same order in either language.

Braille, sign language, world facts. Names of the presidents, or kings, or states, or oceans.

Actually, the cereal I buy - usually house brand - often has vaguely educational stuff on the back of the box: simple history and geography, etc. Sometimes the name brand cereal has it, too, though they're more prone to silly games or promotional junk.

On the reading tangent, my sister was a few years ahead of me; she'd come home from school, set up the toy blackboard, and show me what she learned that day. So, IIRC, I was reading, at least basic reading, when I entered kindergarten.

Also on the US dollar coins, the late and lamented Sacajawea dollars, last I checked I could still get them from the dispenser at Brown Bear car wash, where they work the same as the brass tokens at the vacuum and self-serve car wash bays. American habits were just too engrained to accept a dollar-equivalent coin like so much of the world uses, unfortunately.

And I'm constantly amazed at how people don't seem to know stuff that most of us theoretically learned to get through grade school. "Fifty Nifty United States" - did nobody else sing that one? Did nobody else have to copy the map? Gah...
 

be frank

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Have these people never watched Breaking Bad???

I wonder what the overlap is between Americans who don't know New Mexico is in the US, and those who believe conspiracy theories about their government hiding aliens on US soil at Roswell ... in New Mexico.
 

porlock

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I suppose you'd have to have lived on a farm or ranch to understand, but I wonder how many people know the definition of a "steer." Strangely, our local high school mascot is the "Steers," and I asked a random guy here and he was shocked to know it was a castrated bull. In a small west Texas town. Amazing. However, I have realized that the term seems to have broadened to mean "cattle" or "cows." Maybe it has something to do with cartoon bulls often having udders.
 

Brightdreamer

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I suppose you'd have to have lived on a farm or ranch to understand, but I wonder how many people know the definition of a "steer." Strangely, our local high school mascot is the "Steers," and I asked a random guy here and he was shocked to know it was a castrated bull. In a small west Texas town. Amazing. However, I have realized that the term seems to have broadened to mean "cattle" or "cows." Maybe it has something to do with cartoon bulls often having udders.

Gah, bulls with udders... right up there with male kangaroos with pouches. (Funny how those are acceptable in kiddie cartoons, yet some parents hit the roof over the implication of nonbinary gender even outside of explicit romance, like when a little boy prefers wearing sparkly dresses. They really must be that stupid...)

As for steers, the family and I were once looking at a bronze statue outside a nearby library when a guy - for no reason we have ever been able to discern - struck up a conversation/rant about how the statue depicted a man working with harnessed bulls, not steers, which you Just Don't Do, and how his father was a sculptor/artist and everyone wanted their stallions and bulls instead of geldings and steers, and how stupid people had to be to want that... One of the most surreal moments of my life remains standing in a library parking lot listening to a stranger rant about bronze bull testicles.
 

ElaineA

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And I'm constantly amazed at how people don't seem to know stuff that most of us theoretically learned to get through grade school. "Fifty Nifty United States" - did nobody else sing that one? Did nobody else have to copy the map? Gah...

I still sing Fifty Nifty United States all. the. time. I'm amazed at how often I want to (or have to) know states in alphabetical order. (FINE. I love crosswords. It comes in handy!)

Copy the map AND put the capital city in roughly the right place! I used to know all the capitals, but I'm iffy on several of them now. *sigh*
 

Roxxsmom

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Gah, bulls with udders... right up there with male kangaroos with pouches. (Funny how those are acceptable in kiddie cartoons, yet some parents hit the roof over the implication of nonbinary gender even outside of explicit romance, like when a little boy prefers wearing sparkly dresses. They really must be that stupid...)

Because everyone "knows" kangaroo pouches are for holding stuff, like a pocket, and all animals (and most people) are male anyway.

Ignorance is rampant.
 
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Jason

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Wow. It's not like there haven't been numerous TV shows, movies, and even conspiracy theories about the
Apollo program in the intervening years or anything.

I really do think the proliferation of information and diversions on the web has led too many people to narrow their focus, rather than broaden it.

Remember when we were kids, and we'd be bored somewhere and we'd have to pick up a dusty old magazine or book we weren't that interested in and read, or at least flip through it? Sometimes I discovered something interesting in spite of myself. Smart phones have rendered that practice all but obsolete.

I actually am finding magazines much more gratifying than I used to. Of course my typical reads are now things like NatGeo, the Smithsonian, and a few others along those veins...

...

Also on the US dollar coins, the late and lamented Sacajawea dollars, last I checked I could still get them from the dispenser at Brown Bear car wash, where they work the same as the brass tokens at the vacuum and self-serve car wash bays. American habits were just too engrained to accept a dollar-equivalent coin like so much of the world uses, unfortunately.

I'm actually a hoarder of these...

And I'm constantly amazed at how people don't seem to know stuff that most of us theoretically learned to get through grade school. "Fifty Nifty United States" - did nobody else sing that one? Did nobody else have to copy the map? Gah...

I actually never learned from the song though my nephews sang it to me when we posed this challenge over the holidays in years past - it floored me that not only did they know all fifty states, but could name them alphabetically in less than 3 minutes! Alllllaaaabama..... :)

Back when I was in school, there was no song, it was just from rote memorization - we had to do the states, the capitals, and our math up to 12x12 all from memory. No neat little mnemonic devices or anything.
 
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Maggie Maxwell

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Songs are absolutely incredible for memorization. In 4th grade, we learned a song that named all the US presidents in order up to Clinton. I can STILL drop that sucker out 25 years later.