Things you can't believe people have never heard of

You're correct. I had never heard of the 'saltire' before moving to Scotland.
Most people have never heard of the Barnett Formula, GERS or even what an MSP is!

One day last year I was sat at the same table of a woman who was with her teenage daughter.

The daughter started telling me that she was doing the Duke of Edinburgh award and about all the activities for the award that were coming up.

Her mum piped up 'The Duke of Edinburgh Award? What's that then?'

Scratches head......

You’re not Charleygirl. I felt so daft.

Battersea1971

My MIL said she sometimes hear people refer to the F word. What does it stand for? So I spelt it out for her. She looked baffled and said, what does that mean!!! I didt go into any more details!

Apparently after overhearing a conversation between some older girls at school my mother asked her mum (very loudly on the bus home) "Does daddy F* you?" Cool as you like my grandmother's reply was "Of course he does. We'll talk about it when we get home."
I never knew her as she died when my mum was a teenager. I'm guessing she would have taken this thread in her stride though and wish I'd known her. I too have done quite a bit of googling!

I also have led a sheltered life having googled "pearl necklace". I doubt if I am alone.

I know somebody who has never heard of Omicron. She has been vaccinated and boosted so she must have heard of Covid but I doubt if she knows it has 19 tagged on to it.

I did some online shopping in the office which included a pearl necklace. The IT department told me I had received an email containing the words ‘pearl necklace’, did I want it released. Of course I said, whyever not? What was the problem? They released the email and suggested I Google it. Oh dear.

It's not surprising that different generations know different things I suppose. And some things have passed into obscurity. I try and make sure my grandchildren know about Elvis and the Beatles as I'm sure many youngsters won't have heard of them. To anyone born after 2000 the 20th century is history so we must make sure they realise that things from back then created the society in which they now live!

My ex boss - mid 40s - had never heard of Che Guevara.

“He’s been dipping his wick”, left me keeling over in hysterics!

My daughter, 30, gave me such a quizzical look when I told I had heard something 'on the grapevine'!
I was astonished she had never heard that before, especially as Marvin Gaye's song is so famous!!

Someone earlier mentioned young quizzers saying “it’s before my time” about historical occurrences,” which is a particular bugbear of mine. I remember a young team on Eggheads being asked which prime minister said “you’ve never had it so good” and responding in such a manner. It was several years before I was born but my husband and I were calling out “Harold Macmillan” before any of the three options. came on the screen. Another time a team were asked what the initials NB meant and they didn’t have a clue. I did not study Latin at school but certain Latin terms such as this one were once considered common knowledge. So much so, that neighbours of ours when l was a child actually called their house Nota Bene - a clever play on words as it can also be read as Not A Bean.

Google must be busy today. I too had to look up pearl necklace and tea bagging!

The 3 day week and rationing of electricity.
I was buying some furniture and the assistant was putting my order on an I pad which kept logging out. It took over an hour to complete the transaction that once would have taken a few minutes.
I casually remarked, "how would we have coped in the 3 day week?"
I got a blank look from the young man, so I explained what it was. He was stunned and called his Co workers over and asked them if they knew what it was. Non of them did so I left them to their "Googling."

In NE England daps were known as sandshoes back in the day. I did a bit of sniggering myself when I moved down to Yorkshire and heard them called pumps, which meant something completely different up there.

Back at school in a language class, I translated a German phrase as "she peeped round the door". Our teacher (who was English) had never heard of the word "peep". By the time the whole class had shouted it at him many times and tried to convince him, some of us were crying with laughter and he was certain we'd invented it to wind him up. To be honest, the more you say it, the less real it sounds....

Pearl necklace- after googling I now know ?!

When we moved to Kent none of the shops knew what daps or underskirts were. Think it's colloquial to the west country
Daps are black school PE slip on shoes and underskirts are known as a half waist petticoat lol

Over Christmas dinner my grandson 20 asked where I got the idea of bread sauce (which he adores) from as none of his friends had ever heard of it !

I suggest anyone Googling some of these posts uses Private Browsing Mode.

Am I the only one to have caught the early reference to Pampas Grass? I read about Pampas Grass (planted outside a house as a sign that 'swingers' lived there) in one of R D Wingfield's Inspector Jack Frost books. I wondered if it were true or part of the fiction.

Hi, just joined and browsing past posts. Just learned about a pearl necklace! That's why I joined! To learn new stuff!

Just looked up Pearl necklace. I have led a sheltered life !

Driving home from school with 8 yr old DGD talking about Christmas and related beliefs I mentioned the Bible. She asked ”What is the Bible?’

Pressed send too soon. Still an unfortunate choice.

Powergen Italia sells specialised battery products.

Mamardoit

I won't be able to look at a photo of Maggie Thatcher in her Pearl necklace without thinking of this.

Off to google tea bagging.

I would advise you to google it on someone else's computer...