I was going to post this in the joke section. but it isn't really a joke. It's a true story that I thought was funny. I hope others have funny true stories they would like to post here.

During the summer of 1967 I worked for the US Forest Service at Boise National Forest in Idaho. I was stationed at Long Gulch Guard Station, which was probably only about 30 or 35 miles from Boise, but was an hour and a half drive over those dusty, winding, washboard Forest Service roads. Consequently, I only went to town on weekends. One of the guys, just out of high school, lived in Boise but stayed at the station during the week and went home every weekend. One Monday evening after dinner he told me he had met a girl over the weekend and he wanted to write to her. He asked me how to spell Margaret. I told him and he wrote his letter. The next Monday he again asked, “How do you spell Margaret?” I again told him and he wrote his letter. The following Monday he sat down after dinner and wrote his letter without any assistance from me. I commented that he finally learned how to spell Margaret. “No,” he replied, “ I just abbreviated it: Mrgt.” I told him he was going to catch hell over that. He did.

Keeping it language related, I've never forgotten something from school when I was about twelve or thirteen. One of the kids (not me!) was asked to spell "fought".

After a long hestation he asked "Do you mean like where soldiers live or like when you'm finkin'?"

True story about how a word can cause agony.

When I was about seven (late 40s) I had rheumatic fever. The established cure was bed rest, so I went into the hospital for the first time. The nurse helped me into bed and told me, when I had to relieve myself, to ask for the urinal. Came the time when I had to go, but I couldn't remember what the name of the utensil was. And I was too embarrassed to ask. So I waited. And began to get very uncomfortable. Then, after more waiting, parts began to throb and pressure built up progressively.

Later that night, when I was sweating bullets, a nurse popped her head in the door and aksed why I was still up. Thankfully, she brought my saving c ontainer and didn't laugh, at least not to my face, for which I was grateful.