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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 13:36:21 GMT
They'll Get Stuck That Way" Remember your parents, grandparents , teachers telling you these "truisms" and legends and myths. Some of them true valid, others, as noted, myths. I'm curious given the varied cultures we have on board here, what types of sayings of this nature were told to you as you were growing up. Many are health related, others even sexual. Let's share what we heard and compare etc. and our reaction, conceptualization of etc...
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 17:40:57 GMT
My parents did not ever say "you'll go blind" if I did that thing that makes you go blind, but it was certainly a common statement in the old days. I seem to recall that it could also make you go deaf.
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Post by htmb on May 25, 2014 18:54:56 GMT
I used to read until very late at night - still do - and when I was fairly young I'd frequently read under the covers with a flashlight, trying not to get caught. During the daytime I'd also take every opportunity I could to grab a book and sit anywhere to read. Chairs in dimly-lit corners; whatever was convenient. I was constantly told by my parents that I'd destroy my eyesight if I continued to read in the dark. They might as well have worn fluorescent green t-shirts emblazoned with "HTMB, you're going to go blind."
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Post by bixaorellana on May 28, 2014 3:15:30 GMT
My mother told us that if you could kiss your elbow, you'd change into the opposite sex. We'd try to do it, then stop, realizing that we didn't want to change.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2014 16:44:40 GMT
I think I've mentioned before that my grandmother could not stand to see the bread upside down. "The devil is dancing on the bread!"
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Post by htmb on May 28, 2014 20:36:57 GMT
No telling what my grandmothers taught my parents. My mother, as intelligent as she was, really believed opening an umbrella in the house could bring seven years of bad luck, and who knew what havoc could be wreaked if you spilled the salt. She learned both from her mother and grandmother, I am sure.
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Post by questa on May 29, 2014 0:20:20 GMT
I had an elderly aunt by marriage who was a pathologist. She became the Crown Coroner and wrote the text book that was in use for students of pathology at University. She knew the lot! However she told me not to let my children walk on the linoleum or vinyl floors as they would get pneumonia and die like her little sister did in the 1920s.
Family mythology...1 Hard science...0
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Post by questa on May 29, 2014 0:37:43 GMT
My maternal grandmother lived her dour life in a fortress of superstition. All the usual ones noted here plus: Don't let knives cross when setting the table...a fight in the family. Always wear an undergarment inside out (widdershins) as it confuses the bad spirits trying to get you. Shoes (even new in the box) on the table indicated death and the dressing of the corpse. Never burn old bread scraps...ensuing hunger. Scraps of paper, cigarette butts etc not to go into a cooking fire...ensuing spoiled food.
This last is a big no-no in Asia, too, but that is because cooking fires are sacred and not for rubbish disposal.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 1:15:59 GMT
My mother told us that if you could kiss your elbow, you'd change into the opposite sex. We'd try to do it, then stop, realizing that we didn't want to change. I'm trying to wrap my head around this one. What would compel your mother to dole out this warning Bixa? I am so curious about it for several reasons. One, having viewed the recent posting of a young and strikingly beautiful woman, your mother. Two,having met your mother and two of your siblings, I have a somewhat clear vision of how this was played out and I have been laughing about it to myself ever since reading it. What a hoot!!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 29, 2014 2:09:45 GMT
It's definitely indicative of my mother's sense of humor. I think it's impossible for anyone to kiss his or her own elbow. I assume this bit of "knowledge" was something left over from her own childhood.
Other moments of her humor: Giving us large curd cottage cheese & saying it was popcorn to see our reactions when we picked it up. Once some little friends came over as we were finishing up a meal with some canned apricots. When they asked what we were eating, Mama told them it was raw eggs, as she hadn't felt like cooking.
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Post by htmb on May 29, 2014 2:26:10 GMT
Your mother probably had to find a harmless and fun way to get back at her little darlings for those very few moments when you weren't so perfect. Trying to kiss your own elbow is kind of funny though. I'm betting there are contortionists who could do it. You know we've all been trying since reading your post. :-)
My Dad once snuck a few eggs out of the laying hens' cages at the state fair and into the rabbit pens just to see the reaction from the little kiddies. Fortunately, his own children, who would have died of embarrassment, were elsewhere.
How about the one about the watched pot never boiling? Another of my mother's favorites, or "Watch out, your face is going to freeze if you continue to make that awful scowl."
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 2:46:28 GMT
Well, clearly one sees that "the apple doesn't fall far from from the tree" with regard to whom you got your sense of humor Bixa.
Having been raised in a "severely" Catholic environment,many of the things we were told were laced with what God would think or do to us if we weren't obedient. I'm drawing a blank on specific ones for some reason or perhaps on a healthy repression of them.
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Post by questa on May 29, 2014 3:16:30 GMT
casimira, my best friend was from a large Catholic family. She was careful not to cross her legs above the knee "because it makes a cross and that makes Our Lady weep" Apparently crossed ankles are OK. Anyone else heard this one?
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Post by bixaorellana on May 29, 2014 3:45:43 GMT
Never heard the crossing the legs above the knee one. Very odd & old fashioned. I haven't heard most of yours, Questa, except for the shoes on the table, but never knew the reason until now. Re: linoleum and pneumonia -- some people believe walking on a cold floor will give you arthritis. The cooking fire one sounds like good common sense.
God never had anything specific in store for us, just a general "will punish you".
Here's a great one I heard, though only after I was grown & not from my family. A friend's two little girls were acting up & when he reprimanded them, one struck him on the leg with her hand. He immediately said, "You hit your parent! Now your hand's going to grow out of your grave."
(Casimira take note: the friend in question was Lee Madere.)
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Post by patricklondon on May 29, 2014 7:20:29 GMT
Some of those are qutie widespread, I think. I certainly remember about shoes on the table and crossed knives, though my mother never took them particularly seriously, just mentioned it as a family habit/tradition. (Crossed legs on the other hand might not be a good idea for people with circulatory problems, as the nurses were always ticking off my late father about it; and it was generally considered a bit casual for formal manners - for some people, it might have been thought to be attracting unseemly attention to "forbidden" areas of the body, and therefore not something nice young ladies should do). We also had tossing a pinch of spilled salt over your left shoulder (to blind the devil), and were told about girls doing the same with apple peel to see if it formed the initial of the man they would marry. My father was, I think, rather more serious about not opening umbrellas in the house (they can certainly get in the way, in a narrow hallway), and NEVER bringing cut hawthorn into the house (I think that might be Scottish, possibly going back to ancient tree-worship). There was also my mother's little game if you found a stalk of a tealeaf (or "stranger") had floated to the surface. You fished it out on to the back of one hand and tried to dab it off with the forefinger of the other. For each dab you recited the days of the week, and the one where the stalk lifted off on to the finger would be the day you could expect a stranger to call. Of course, that might just have been to distract a child from making a fuss about a stray stalk in their tea........ My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bjd on May 29, 2014 8:51:37 GMT
It sounds as though I grew up in a very unsuperstitious household. I have heard of some of those things mentioned: not opening umbrellas in the house, not breaking mirrors, but never heard them mentioned at home.
I do remember women not supposed to cross their legs at the knee (men were allowed to), but could cross them at the ankles. I suppose that crossing legs at the knee would show the legs more and not be demure, rather than posing circulation problems. Once again, I never was told this at home but think it was general 1950s-early 1960s ideas about how women should behave.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 15:44:44 GMT
Well, women couldn't cross their legs for centuries; wearing a corset and bustle or hoops skirts makes it impossible. When women were finally released from such things in the teens and 20s, I believe crossing of the legs prohibition had more to do with preventing the excitation of the naughty bits (or plain old "modesty") than any religious reasons.
Thread on your clothes? You have a letter coming. Shiver? Goose walked over your grave.
I was exhorted to take teeny tiny bites of my food because "that's how princesses eat". I kid you not. My mother was responsible for most of my ultimately disappointed expectations of life.
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Post by htmb on May 29, 2014 16:06:04 GMT
All of us Catholic school girls of a certain age learned not to wear black patent leather shoes because that meant we were asking for "trouble."
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 16:58:54 GMT
My American grandmother seemed to believe that the only way not to die if you got your feet wet was to wrap them in newspaper. Apparently a towel was insufficient. In later years I wondered if she just didn't want to risk getting her towels dirty.
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Post by bjd on May 29, 2014 18:06:47 GMT
All of us Catholic school girls of a certain age learned not to wear black patent leather shoes because that meant we were asking for "trouble." Really? I guess I'm lucky I didn't go to a Catholic high school then. On the other hand, I don't think I ever had patent leather shoes either.
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Post by htmb on May 29, 2014 21:06:17 GMT
Neither did I, and you can certainly see the reason!!!
Yep, Kerouac. That's exactly why she she didn't want you using her towels.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 21:32:25 GMT
I never asked to have my feet dried either.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 29, 2014 22:21:57 GMT
The deal on the patent leather shoes was that they were reflective, which meant boys could (theoretically) look at your shiny shoes & see up your skirt.
Interesting item about the newspapers for wet feet. I never heard that before, but a supposed cure for sore throat is to wrap the neck in brown paper soaked in vinegar. The two beliefs might be connected.
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Post by questa on May 29, 2014 23:49:08 GMT
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after
Up Jack got and home did trot as fast as he could caper Went to bed to mend his head With vinegar and brown paper
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 16:29:52 GMT
casimira, my best friend was from a large Catholic family. She was careful not to cross her legs above the knee "because it makes a cross and that makes Our Lady weep" Apparently crossed ankles are OK. Anyone else heard this one? Yes, I do remember the crossing of ones legs being a big no no and sacrilegious. It was enforced both at school and home. It is very awkward for me to sit still with my legs side by side. I think it is because of my legs being long, it feels so uncomfortable and unnatural for me to do. I prefer have them crossed and one leg wrapped around my ankle. So, I was chastised constantly and labeled as rebellious. In addition to being left-handed which made me even more a "child of the devil".
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 16:47:33 GMT
The nuns used to love to tell us stories about the awful consequences of not following the rules of the church. These are terrifying when told by a scary nun when you are six years old. I remember one story about a man who had an argument with a priest and dared to slap him. His child was born with a huge birthmark on the face in the shape of a hand. And when we were being prepared for first communion, we were told that the communion host must be swallowed as quickly as possible. Once upon a time someone kept the host in his mouth and then hid it in his handkerchief to take home. He put it on the kitchen table and cut it in two with a knife. Blood ran out.
Frankly, stories like this are some of the elements that make it easy to reject religion at a later age.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 17:16:44 GMT
Thankfully, my Catholic upbringing was entirely devoid of nuns, and very few priests, for that matter. The consequence of growing up in miniscule religious communities, I guess. Often, the priest would only visit town once a week for mass. I briefly flirted with the romantic concept of taking orders when I was about 13, but when I learned that obedience was really the chief directive of nuns, I lost interest quickly.
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Post by bjd on May 30, 2014 18:18:46 GMT
Amazing how many Catholics (or lapsed ones) there are on this forum!
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Post by htmb on May 30, 2014 20:02:29 GMT
Yes. That's is an interesting point, bjd, and for most of us the Catholic doctrine has been so beaten into our brains that it never completely goes away. Of course, just like the stories told to us by our parents, the rules were meant to control certain behaviors in order to protect the masses, while keeping the few "wise leaders" in control. Looking back on it as an adult I imagine most of the nuns who told us those stories about crossing legs and reflective shoes were internally fighting their own sexual desires, and we all know what many of the priests were up to. Too bad the nuns weren't teaching all the little boys to make sure never to be alone with "father," since some of priests were quite unable to control themselves.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 21:06:30 GMT
Actually, in the place where I grew up, I felt very lucky to be a Catholic in view of the intolerance of so many of the other faiths dominating the area.
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