Things you were shockingly old when you learned

That 'Teddy Ruxpin' is an animatronic toy teddy bear, and not the name of US Senator or similar.

That "pickles" are made from cucumbers, and later that pickles can refer to any preserved in brine vegetable.

not quite a "shockingly old" answer but... first time i saw "PED XING" road signs i thought they must be chinese or something.

"nothing" comes from "no thing", "none" comes from "not one"

The PED XING isn't helped by the way it's often XING PED when painted on the road.

not quite a "shockingly old" answer but... first time i saw "PED XING" road signs i thought they must be chinese or something.

the chinese word for pedestrian is XING REN so that is totally believable

That interstate exits are numbered according to the mile marker, so exit 230 is fifteen miles away from exit 215.

(TBF, I've only recently started driving again for the first time since I was a teenager.)

in Florida, that wasn't always the case. when I grew up, the exits were merely sequential with no regard for miles, so when I'd go from my house to Downtown Disney, I'd go from exit 49 to exit 26 but it would really be 26 miles and not 23. they renumbered them all in 2002 to match up with the mile markers. they had to write the old mile marker on the signs temporarily because people were getting massively confused with the number changes.

Our exit sign also has the mile marker attached to it, which always makes me go damn.

I mean, you might have an Exit 153 in your state, but we've got the Exit 153.

Yes, this changed in living memory.

The advantage of sequential exit numbering is knowing when your exit is next. "Just passed exit 66; that means 67 is next."

The disadvantage with sequential exit numbering is that sometimes new exits get built between existing ones, requiring everything to be renumbered. The exit numbers that are mile-based don't have that problem.

As Neanderthal notes, for a while there were signs that said the old exit number, for people navigating based on the previous system. I remember one near my parents' house that said "OLD EXIT 37," and I always thought it had an evocative folk-wisdom kind of ring, like "Old Engine 42" or "It's just old Luke and Luke's waiting on the judgement day."

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into tenths of a mile.

Exit 73.4!

They haven't gone that far, but I wish!

we have a lot of exits at the same mile marker here and they always add an A, B, or a C in sequence.

the chinese word for pedestrian is XING REN so that is totally believable

thought you were being funny but this turns out to be true!

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into tenths of a mile.

was gonna ask if this means they have a marker every tenth of a mile (!) but it turns out they only place them every fifth of a mile.

Aw, damn. You're right.

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into fifths of a mile!

They are fancy compared to the normal kind.

https://i.imgur.com/Qq7b8ub.png https://i.imgur.com/trCmJeg.png

srsly hoping pplains has a whole Pinterest page of "Highway Markers I Have Loved."

That cobwebs are made of old spiderwebs, and not, I dunno, magic old dust like I previously thought.

I only learned what pimento cheese is 2? years ago (thanks warmleatherette!) It is astonishingly delicious.

srsly hoping pplains has a whole Pinterest page of "Highway Markers I Have Loved."

More like a Geocities page with a midi of "In My Life" playing in the background.

You might even think I'm kidding about this, but...

Dang, wish I remembered my geocities url.

Only learned the proper pronunciation of "Coachella" a few weeks ago - it never occurred to me that the music festival is located in the same place as the carrot festival mentioned in that one Bugs Bunny cartoon.

I've heard older people talk about "newsreels" all my life but only recently learned what they were. Also didn't know what "put through the wringer" literally meant.

I think my grandparents on the farm had one of the last maytag wringer washers produced because they didn’t want to switch and had water supply problems. Tub with an agitator, no spin cycle, wringer to feed clothes through before hanging them on the line to dry.

'young talent time' took its name from johnny young's surname. somehow i didn't make this bleeding obvious connction for 30+ years.

xpost my grandma had one

didn't know what "put through the wringer" literally meant.

I had some literal experience with that one. There was a wringer washing machine in the basement of the house where I grew up and I got my hand stuck in the wringer at about age 4 or 5. My dad had to do some disassembly to free me.

hurts your liittle fingers ouuuuch

my grandma had one as well

Maingled

'young talent time' took its name from johnny young's surname.

Only learned the proper pronunciation of "Coachella" a few weeks ago

wait, is it pronounced in some other way than how it looks?

it's pronounced "twat picnic"

sorry, some of my best friends are picnics, etc

I'm amusedly picturing people saying Coach Ella

My grandparents had a lot of seemingly prewar stuff in their house. Which I think Included a mangle. Definitely had a weird drying rack that was attached to a piece of rope so it could be winched up near the ceiling.
Also had a coal hole for delivery by the coalman.
I say prewar but I think they only moved in there in the 50s

'ko-ACK-hella' IIRC

I think it's supposed to be 'koh-ah-cheh-lah' rather than 'kough-cheh-lah'.

Pretty sure that both pronunciations are acceptable now. Usage trumps all, etc.

otm

I'd seen refs to the festival in print and online 2 million times but never heard it spoken by an irl human until recently.

I don't get out much.

So it's not Coach Ella.

To be honest, I was pronouncing it more like "COH-chella."

Been pronouncing it Co-Chella in my head lo these many years.

Cloaca

Cockula