" Where is the Ocean?" LOL

[pouncingpluto]

We stopped in Macon, Georgia on our way to WDW two years ago. My MIL was drying our towels after a swim, and another lady in the hotel laundry room struck up a conversation with her. After my MIL told her she was Canadian, she said she had met a Canadian family the previous evening, and was totally shocked that the families didn't know each other.

This is like when I was an exchange student in Germany, and the other kids thought I must know celebrities because I was an American. Like the U.S. is TV, MUSIC, AND MOVIE-LAND, not a real country with a lot else going on.

 

[byoung]

 

[Florida_Mom]

During a trip to Gettysburg, my SIL asked "How were they able to fight a battle here? Didn't the monuments get in the way?" That was 25 years ago, and we still talk aobut it at family reunions.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

No offense to the poster who outed herself (South Africa! ), but this stuff is FRIGHTENING. Truly, I would be horrified if my son didn't have a grasp on GLOBAL geography by age 10. I knew (and still know...it sticks with ya!) the capitals of each and every state and roughly where they were by that age, and had at least heard of pretty much every country that makes the news on a regular basis by then, as well. Yeah, it's funny and all that jazz, but it really is scary to think how freakin' ignorant we are (as a nation...not picking on any one person) about our OWN geography!
I hope they are emphasizing this more in school these days, although it really won't affect my family since we are homeschooling.

 

[MsLeFever]

When my brother was in law school - LAW SCHOOL mind you - he got into a ridiculous fight with a fellow student who had never heard of Helen Keller and refused to believe that such an amazing woman had ever lived or written a book. Somehow this guy had never seen Miracle Worker or heard a Helen Keller joke!

Same school....different student....kept misprounouning ALAMO. I think the case was about an Alamo housing center. She was saying "A - lamb - o". Finally the prof. corrected her and said "Alamo" - like "remember the Alamo in Texas?" The girl says "Oh, I'm from New Jersey."

Sigh

 

[Laura]

I once worked in a movie theater that was built in the late 1920s to show movies and stage acts. I was talking to one of my new co-workers about the theater's history, and he disputed the fact that the theater was built to show movies, because they didn't have them back then. I told them movies certainly did exist then, and he just shouted at me that I was wrong. "They didn't even have photography back then!" He was so adamant that I just let it go.

My SIL thought raisins grew as their own plant. And that spaghetti grew on trees (DH says it's because she saw a commercial in the '80s that showed Italians harvesting pasta from trees). She's my DH's brother's wife, so she and DH don't share genes. Whew!

 

[twinz]

I work for a Cruise wholesalers (basically I just sell cruises to travel agents). So a few weeks after I started taking calls on my own, myself and a few co-workers got to talking about "stupid" questions. One guy had an agent called and she asked him if they had cabins that were under water. He goes to her "mame you have booked a vaction on a cruise ship not a submarine" I STILL crack up over it, and I think it has beent he best answer I have heard.

 

[Mike]

I was over my friend's house watching a basketball game on his 19" tv. He was telling me how he wanted to buy a 32" tv but his wife didn't want to spend the money. A few minutes later they showed a wide angle shot of the basketball court and his wife emphatically states "See ... if you had a 32 inch tv you would just see more of the crowd ... why waste the money?" I turned to my friend and said "I'd go for the 61 inch projection tv so you can check out what's going on out in the parking lot"

This is the same woman who told me that we could not go out to eat at TGIF because it was Wednesday and they were only open on Fridays. She actually called to prove it to me. She was shocked when someone answered the phone and then she asked "are you open today?" I wish I could have heard the response on the other end.

 

[buckylarue]

Truly, I would be horrified if my son didn't have a grasp on GLOBAL geography by age 10. I knew (and still know...it sticks with ya!) the capitals of each and every state and roughly where they were by that age, and had at least heard of pretty much every country that makes the news on a regular basis by then, as well.

My Mother used to always brag to us kids that by the 2nd grade, she knew all of the states and their capitols. We, of course, would reply that it was much easier when there were only 38 states...

I don't know why we didn't get smacked in the mouth more...

 

[Raevyn_Wolfe]

No offense to the poster who outed herself (South Africa! ), but this stuff is FRIGHTENING. Truly, I would be horrified if my son didn't have a grasp on GLOBAL geography by age 10. I knew (and still know...it sticks with ya!) the capitals of each and every state and roughly where they were by that age, and had at least heard of pretty much every country that makes the news on a regular basis by then, as well. Yeah, it's funny and all that jazz, but it really is scary to think how freakin' ignorant we are (as a nation...not picking on any one person) about our OWN geography!
I hope they are emphasizing this more in school these days, although it really won't affect my family since we are homeschooling.

Seems like everyday that someone says something to me or my husband or we see something somewhere that makes my husband say, "that's why we are private schooling our children".

 

[jenniferma]

When I was on my senior class trip in Washington, DC-- we were standing on the top level of the Kennedy Center and one of my classmates was seriously looking for the Statue of Liberty....

no lie!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Thought of a Disney-related one When I did my college program, they renovated our building so they moved us to a newly renovated apartment in an international building. We got to be really good friends with the guys downstairs, one was from South Africa. His biggest pet peeve was Americans that didn't realize that there are white people anywhere in Africa.

One day he starts telling me this story about Christina Aguilera. He was a driver for the safari and she came in with her little entourage and was chatting with him for a few minutes. She walked away to talk to someone else, walked back to him and looked at his nametag, looked at him, looked at his nametag (keep in mind this girl did the Mickey Mouse Club so she spent a good portion of her childhood in WDW parks and one can assume interacted with a number of CMs) and dead serious asks him, "are you REALLY from South Africa? Or is that a Disney thing?"

 

[pugdog]

One of my favorites is when you are on the top or bottom floor of a building in the elevator and someone always asks what direction your going. So my set answer is always sideways. Stupid question-stupid answer.

 

[Chuck65]

Geez, some people. OK, I have to tell one on my mother. Thank goodness she is not a member of the DIS boards. Here in the south, and a lot of other areas in the country that have a heavy deer population, there will be signs on the roadside warning you about deer crossing the road. Well, we are going to the beach for vacation one year and my mom spots one of those signs. She asked my dad what that sign meant. He said it was a deer crossing sign. My mom, without missing a beat, asked him how the deer knew where to cross the road at. I thought my dad was going to crash the car from laughing so hard. Even today, if she is riding with me and we pass one of those signs, she'll look at me and say, "Shut up Chuck".

 

[Kimber1963]

OK--I have two:

We were driving down the Pacific Coast Highway a few years ago and stopped for gas. The lady ahead of me in line asked "What lake is that out there?" My DH and I just cracked up. The gentleman behind the counter tried to keep a straight face--he said he'd been asked that more than once!

#2--My husband is a manager for Walgreens and a lady brought in a picture of a boy kind of facing a wall to be copied. She asked my husband if he could turn the boy around in the picture so she could see his face. My DH had to excuse himself and went into the office laughing hysterically.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

My DW thought that Winston Churchill was a past President of the USA. She's not very good at history but I need her help when it comes to math, I'll let her stick to doing our budget and I'll teach our kids history.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

In defense of our education system in New York...I posted about the Nassau/NASA confusion. Well, when the woman said this, my 8 year old son burst out laughing (I had to jab him in the ribs a few times). Over 8 years later, he still laughs about that comment.

What I hate is that when you say you are from NY, everyone assumes that you are from the city. Hello, NY is a huge state! When I lived in Orlando, I had to convince people that I didn't live anywhere near NYC. I finally got to the point where I would draw people pictures to show where we live in relation to the city.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

What I hate is that when you say you are from NY, everyone assumes that you are from the city. Hello, NY is a huge state! When I lived in Orlando, I had to convince people that I didn't live anywhere near NYC. I finally got to the point where I would draw people pictures to show where we live in relation to the city.

I know what you mean, people don't believe me when I say I've never been to NYC, HELLO it's an 8 hour car drive, I bet they haven't been to alot of places 8 hours away from them.

 

[pouncingpluto]

I know what you mean, people don't believe me when I say I've never been to NYC, HELLO it's an 8 hour car drive, I bet they haven't been to alot of places 8 hours away from them.

Yeah, but I think that's like anywhere... people go for the only big city they know of from your state. Like I'm originally from Georgia, and people think I must have been from Atlanta, but that's six hours away. I like to inform people that Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi, in terms of land area!

 

[ricktib]

What I hate is that when you say you are from NY, everyone assumes that you are from the city. Hello, NY is a huge state!

As a airline pilot I was in a hotel van on the way to our overnight layover in Buffalo. Those in the area know that there's a little bit of a drive from the airport to downtown. One of the flight attendants looked around for a bit and said, "I had no idea there were so many trees in New York."