Left or Right?

[Deleted]

I always observe whether people are left or right handed. When I worked as a poll commissioner at the elections I took particular note of this as well,just as a curiousity. Three out of the four of us working were left handed. Left handed people were discouraged when I was growing up particularly in the parochial schools. What problems if any, did you encounter growing up in a right handed world and how did you adapt.?
By the way,I am left handed however ,adapted to using my right hand for a number of things out of sheer necessity.

[Deleted]

When I began to learn to write, the nun asked disapprovingly "are you sure that's the hand you want to use?" I made it clear that it was, and that was the end of it.

I didn't really encounter any problems, but I am unable to use scissors left handed.

[lagatta]

My father was not allowed to write with his left hand, but of course that was eons ago. As a result his writing was terrible, but in sport he remained left-handed, which could be an advantage. I inherited the left-handedness, and back then the teachers, especially the older ones, just barely allowed it. Turnstiles in métro stations are designed for right-handed people. Once as a teen I was refused a supermarket cashier's job because "a left-handed person couldn't do the work fast enough". But of course typing, on a computer or on one of those antiquities called a "typewriter", one uses both hands without even thinking of it.

[Deleted]

wow,that's 3 out of 3 so far who've responded,all southpaws.

[lola]

Just to mess up the symmetry: right.

[lagatta]

We can see that from your icon. I certainly paint left-handed.

[bixaorellana]

What a sinister bunch! ;D

I am so rigidly right-handed that I can somewhat imagine how hard it is for lefties to live in a world designed for the "wrong" hand.

[traveler63]

I write with my right hand, but I do everything else with my left. Maybe I started out as left handed but someone or something changed my orientation.

[Deleted]

Jun 22, 2009 10:37:52 GMT kerouac2 said:

When I began to learn to write, the nun asked disapprovingly "are you sure that's the hand you want to use?" I made it clear that it was, and that was the end of it.

I didn't really encounter any problems, but I am unable to use scissors left handed.

Mother Noel took a less humane approach and tied my left hand to the chair with clothesline(she just happened to have some in her desk drawer). I would wriggle it free when her back was to the class in an attempt to keep up with the class work. She caught me one time and made me put my left hand on the desk and whacked it with a yard stick.

[imec]

Right. My son writes with his left hand but does everything else with his right (e.g. golf, racket sports etc.).

[lola]

oh, those un-motherly Mothers and un-sisterly Sisters.

[lola]

Legatta, if I can figure out how to do it, I'll change my icon to a self portrait where I appear to be painting left handed, because I wasn't clever enough to use two mirrors.

[hwinpp]

Jun 22, 2009 14:18:44 GMT imec said:

Right. My son writes with his left hand but does everything else with his right (e.g. golf, racket sports etc.).

Same as me except for one thing. I can only use chop sticks with my left hand.
I played football with my right foot.
My sister is completely left handed, my brother right handed. Both my parents are right handed too.

[lagatta]

I'm utterly left-handed, though I do have my mouse on the right side - I'd rather get carpal tunnel syndrome in my weak hand if I do. I'm sure my dad got the evil nun treatment casimira did, but that was decades earlier than her. Ten years earlier and I probably would have too. It is so strange to think that I might never have been able to paint and draw.

The monotheistic religions all have a very negative attitude towards the left hand.

[Deleted]

I have my mouse on the right also ,although, either works for me. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel in my right wrist in the early '90's. I think the only reason they caught it is because my internist at the time had it. She asked me a series of questions(piano,computer etc. anything with repetitive movement.) The only answer I could give was gardening(pruning,deadheading with secateurs).Also,it only bothered me at night,excruciating pain that would go away when I got up. I received cortisone shots in the wrist every six months until I finally had surgery in 1995.I also had to wear a wrist immobilizer for a while. Very romantic. I figured out the cause was; at night I often sleep in a fetal position including the hand/wrist curled. My wrists are also very tiny in proportion to the rest of my body. Most bracelets have to be down sized to fit.

[rikita]

i am right handed but i usually keep the knife in the left hand when eating - so when i set the table i set my own cutlery the other way around as anyone else's, i used to put everyone's the way i like, which would always confuse my family when i was a kid... also when i had some piano lessons in my late teens, my piano teacher kept asking if i am left handed as my left hand always had a better position and was stronger...

[Deleted]

I heard on the radio this morning that it was International Left Handers Day...Whatever that means. www.lefthandersday.com/
I dug up this old thread that I remembered posting in order to get a count on who was right or left handed. (out of my own curiosity)
Looks like we need an update as this thread dates back to 6/09.

[Deleted]

But it is a very interesting subject. Do we get to take revenge today, and if so, how do we do it?

I do know that apparently just about any left hander has almost no trouble reading things upside down and/or backwards. I know I don't. In any of those horror movies that use the gimmick of something written backwards (Redrum), I always read it correctly instantly.

[palesa]

I was a bit ambidextrous, I used to do somethings as a lefty and others as a righty, sometimes I would write with my left hand and other times with my right hand, at some point I was 'trained' right handed.

I cannot knit because I am equally comfortable knitting left or right that I forget to change my knitting around.

My son is a lefty, not sure how left he is, sometimes he plays sport left and sometimes right, he definitely eats and writes left

[auntieannie]

I am right handed. The card sweeping turnstiles at uni are meant for left-handed and it is ridiculous how confusing it is. Well, I've got the hang of it now, but so many times I have to let people know.. and I don't even spend much time up there...

[rikita]

wonder if my little brother is left- or righthanded now. while ago they said he is probably left handed, but i didn't really spend attention to see if that is true or not. he is starting school next week... but i think these days there should be no problem no matter what hand he writes with. Just if we buy some of these special learning-pens for him, then we need to pay attention which one to buy...

[bjd]

I am completely right-handed, as is everyone in my immediate family. So utterly right-handed that when I fell and broke my thumb a few years ago and where I have now developed arthritis, I still can't do anything with my left hand to ease up on my thumb. Except type, of course.

[foreverman]

My wife is left handed and has this gift of being able to write mirror image..............i find this fantastic as she can write as quick and neatly as I can write normally..................

[bixaorellana]

That's interesting, Foreverman. I've seen kids start out writing that way, but the ability usually gets quashed in school.

Has anyone else noticed that many more actors are left-handed than would seem to be the average for the general population?

[Deleted]

And U.S. Presidents too I believe.

Yes,Kerouac and foreverman,lefties are able to read upside down and do the mirror image thing. I haven't taken note as to whether or not it's something that gets lost as Bixa suggests. It certainly has stayed with me. But,my husband tells me that I am severely left handed.

One handicap I encountered growing up and in school was in art class having to use a made for right handed persons paper cutter. We had to cut our own poster board etc. and mine was always f'd up,on a slant because I couldn't do it correctly,or right,as it were.
I also almost cut myself quite badly on several occasions.

I had a bag of garden tools stolen from my truck several years ago,and in that bag were several pricey hand tools,secateurs,for left handers. I was furious!!! All I could think was I hope the f'er cuts him or herself trying to use. And then,I realized,they more than likely weren't going to be doing any gardening with them.
The insurance did not cover near the cost I paid for these tools.

[bjd]

Even though I am right-handed, I can read upside down. Can't write mirror images though.

[Deleted]

Everybody in my family is right-handed except for my French grandmother who apparently would have preferred to be left-handed if it had been allowed. She was quite ambidextrous for a lot of things throughout her life, but not for writing. I seem to have inherited a bit of it, because I adapted to all of the automatically right-handed devices like scissors and most tools and have great difficulty using them with my otherwise preferred hand.

[cheerypeabrain]

I'm right handed, but can only use the computer mouse with my left.....OH is left handed and set up the family computer for so that the mouse worked best on the left....I really struggle to use the one at work (which is on the RHS)

[Deleted]

My mouse is on the right. It is part of the category of "tools" for me.

[rikita]

what do you mean by reading upside down? just holding the book upside down and then read? I can do that, but am considerable slower and have to concentrate more than reading normal... mirror image writing works kind of, but very slow and it looks messier even than my normal writing...

btw, my little brother writes mirror image sometimes - not some of the letters, like kids sometimes do, but the complete word (like, usually his name, that's the only thing he can write so far)... he doesn't quite understand the difference between writing in this or in that direction yet...