don't worry man, you're not being a noob!
scroll up to the top of the page, and on the top bar of the main post there should be an "options" box, click it, and a menu should drop down. at the bottom of that menu there are three "post options", your one (by what you describe) is currently set to "linear", if you change it to "standard" you can see all posts in full, and if you change it to "outline", you will also see the first post permanently on the top of the page of replies.
hope this helps