LOL. I definitely knew what Communism was by around that age, but I grew up in Wacky Liberal Land. (No one at my high school joined the Young Democrats Club or whatever it was called because they preferred the Socialist Club, which had another name but which was clearly the Socialist Club.)

I think (or rather, I'm hoping) that it was a case of them never having heard the word rather than not having a clue of who the Communists were/are. That still happens to me sometimes. I'd never heard the word "fracas" before about a week ago and I was shocked when I heard a newscaster pronounce it "FRAY-cas" because I'd always thought it was "FRAH-cas."