I thought lizards lived everywhere, and didn't know until I was 18 that Oregon was on the west coast of the US, I thought California ended where Washington started and that Oregon was inland (we did not have geography in school).
When I finally went to college as an adult I took a world geography class as an elective because I felt so incredibly ignorant. Now, even years later I can help my kids with geography, quite a bit of it actually stuck.
I've always lived in Oregon. You would be surprised how many people think it's only California and Washington on the west coast. About a dozen different people in various MMOs have had the same confusion.