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People Are Sharing The “Childhood Mysteries” They Didn’t Figure Out Until Later In Life

11. 

“When I was really young. Me and my siblings would play in my grandparents yard. My grandfather would tell us to stay away from the skunk hole at the edge of the yard. We lived in south Texas so this wasn’t something out of the ordinary, and we just avoided it like any other animal home. Years later it dawned on me. It was actually the septic tank access.” — -PM_me_your_recipes-

12. 

“My mom used to call us in for dinner by yelling out the back door from the kitchen. I was in middle school before I realized the scream door was actually called a screen door.” — Bustersb1tch

13. 

“We grew up poor and at the age of 10 my friends were all having these crazy birthday parties with petting zoos, bounce houses, clowns, etc. so my mother who is very resourceful decided I would have a sleepover for my 11th birthday. It was great and we were gonna make ice cream cones! So we got all the stuff out with my mom, and my mother opened up the box of cones, and they were all smashed up. She said that we weren’t having regular ice cream, we were having ‘magic castle sundaes’ (because the broken ice cream cones resembles the sections of a castle). We all thought this was great and we had them. When my friends went home, they asked their parents to make magic castle sundaes. Two days ago I found out that my mother was getting the past sell by foods behind the grocery store (they were not expired, just past sell by date). She had no idea that the cones were broken up until she opened them with us. She thought of the magic castle idea quickly, and we all loved it. Just goes to show how stupid kids are lol.” — Succulent_Stupidity

14. 

“When I was 10 my godfather gave me 20 dollars as a Christmas gift, at the end of the dinner the money had disappeared. For years my parents blamed me for being irresponsible with my money. Years later we figured out, after she was caught stealing stuff from my aunt’s house, that my cousin’s fiancée at the time is a kleptomaniac. Turns out she was the one that stole the money.” — CiscoDniz

15. 

“I was watching Star Trek TNG with my dad when someone told Ryker to ‘wash his back.’ When I asked my father why someone would say that to another person, he said, ‘So you can smell someone coming up behind you.’ It wasn’t until years later that I understood how easy it was to hear WATCH as WASH…and how committed my Dad was to willfully deceiving his children for personal satisfaction.” — Bixlord

16. 

“One evening when camping, my brother caught a fish that we decided to keep alive in the cooler for some reason. Well, the next morning we ran out to see the fish and it had grown like 5 inches! We were so excited and didn’t know how the fish grew that much overnight! Last year we brought it up and my dad said that he had got up that morning and seen the fish being taken by a raccoon and that he spent the next hour or so frantically fishing for another one. He said he caught the new fish (the first one he was able to catch) just a few minutes before we got up. I had never questioned that the fish growing that much as I grew up, but after hearing what really happened I did feel like we probably should have wondered about that more.” — MorningStar_16

17. 

“Once when I was about 7 or 8, my family was having a pool party and my twenty-something aunt was sitting by the pool with a glass of clear liquid. I was hot and thirsty, so I reached for her drink, and she said, ‘Don’t drink that, it’s pool water!’ I wondered why in the heck she’d have a glass of pool water, but left it alone. Years later, as my family’s alcohol consumption habits became clearer to me, I realized that she was probably drinking vodka.” — wheezy_runner

18. 

“When I was like 8 or so, I answered our house phone, and it was a man, who asked to speak to my mom. Didn’t ask for her by name, said ‘could I speak to your mom, please’ – I asked who it was and he said ‘it’s Santa Claus!’ I was SO excited and ran to my mom and I was telling all my friends for days that SANTA CLAUS HAD CALLED MY HOUSE. This led me to believe in Santa for a few years longer than most kids normally do. I was HEARTBROKEN when I found out that Santa wasn’t real. Years and years later I remembered to ask my mom who had called that day and said they were Santa Claus. It was our Reverend, and my mom was a deacon. He had known me for years so recognized MY voice when I answered and knew what age I was. It had never occurred to me.” — ejoburke90

19. 

“My dad used to say he could stop the rain for a moment by snapping his fingers. He’d do it in the car, when it was pouring. I was so mesmerized; told all my friends about it, well into late elementary school. I’ve since realized he’d snap as we drove underneath an overpass.” — tequilamockingbird16

20. 

“Mystery of why my mom never ordered anything for herself and was never hungry whenever she took my sister and I to eat out. 25 years later, she told me she really was hungry and wanted to eat too but she only had enough money to feed the two of us. She didn’t want us to feel guilty. I love my mom so much.” — thunder_spears

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Patricia Grisafi

Patricia Grisafi, PhD, is a freelance writer and educator. Her work has appeared in Salon, Vice, Bitch, Bustle, Broadly, The Establishment, and elsewhere. She is passionate about pit bull rescue, cursed objects, and designer sunglasses.