This is true it happened to me, my working partner and I both keep taking each other literally no matter how pointless or confusing it makes the conversation, after 30 years of it, it takes some time to wear off.
Bearing the above in mind; I went into our local haberdashers shop to see if they had a curved needle so that I could make a repair to a part of our furniture, I was really surprised when the shop assistant turned around picked a small packet from a drawer and more or less offered me a half a dozen if I wanted them; surprised they had any of these specialist needles I expressed how surprised, how pleased I was too, the woman looked at me and said oh well we've got everything in here.
Those last words of hers were, "oh we've got everything here", so with my background of suffering years of literalism I couldn't help it I had to address this challenge, so I asked her for a 1987 Ford Escort gearbox, it just came out, it wouldn't have been quite so bad had I been promptly put in my place with some sort of derisional humour, but no she was really furious and as near as dammit chucked us out of her shop, my wife and I had to make a hasty exit and run out like a couple of naughty youngsters knocking down ginger, it still make me laugh, I'm smiling as I'm sitting here relating this.
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