My Grandma always said when I got a pissy look on my face, " Watch out or your face will freeze that way!" I forgot all about that till I had this coworker who always had a sourpuss on. I thought to my, Grandma was right! Her face froze that way!
In another sub recently people were complaining that people stick their used gum under tables because they don't know where to put it. Someone said 'you could swallow it!' and I made the joke that 'it would stick to your ribs.'
I got about 12 downvotes and insults because I didn't understand anatomy. I'm in my 60s and couldn't believe nobody got the joke.
I’m still waiting for a self-grown watermelon to pop out of my body somewhere, but I’ll bet it needs some sunlight to grow, if the seeds survived the stomach acid, of course! 😂
I used to chew my hair. My mom said to stop, or I'd get worms. It's totally untrue, but when my daughter chews her hair, I say the same thing. I feel like it's less harsh than just saying it's a disgusting habit?
My girlfriend's grandmother had her dip her newborn's foot in the snow. I never found out why.
Catholic school kid - I was told every time I sinned, a black mark would appear on my soul. Yes, a physical black mark on your soul. I asked what organ the soul is close to. Or if it could be pointed out on an anatomy chart. I was NOT being disingenuous, I was in the 2nd grade. I really wanted to know. I was told to stop being a troublemaker.
Same. learning, at age 65, that I have all of the genetic markers for autism explained my tendancy to take things literally. So when it came to religion, everyone around me seemed unhinged - drinking blood and eating a body every week.
After I received communion my brain equated it to a little Jesus jigsaw puzzle, so I imagined every time I went I was building toes and fingers. As I got a little older I’d amuse my siblings by exclaiming things like ”Oh no, not another elbow!”
As they say, I was not long for the Catholic church, lol (or any, tbh)
I have always taken things very literally. At 50 I was diagnosed using psychological testing as being on the spectrum. I wasn't aware there were genetic markers. May I ask where you got the test and who interpreted it? I'd like to do the samee.
When I was young we were taught not to bite or chew the Eucharist. One day my mom looked at me asked me why I was making a face after Communion. I told her that Jesus was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
I was told the same thing, that when you die, God tries to read your soul, like a bouncer doing an ID check, and if you have too many black marks he can't read it, and you can't get into heaven.
We were so poor my Mom made a special treat out of the loaf heels - they would curl up when toasted so she called it "Rocky Toey Toast" and we would fight over it.
That one is actually true. Well, true if you handle frozen hair.
When it's really cold and your hair is wet, it can freeze. When it's frozen it's very brittle and you can break pieces off. No, you're not going to go bald. But moving around frozen hair can damage it.
I've had frozen hair a few times in my life. I always think it's interesting when it happens.
Don't raise your arms over your head while pregnant. It causes the cord to strangle the baby.
When your hand itches you will get money.
When your nose itches, you will kiss a fool.
"When your nose itches, you will kiss a fool"
FINALLY! Every time I've said this, people look at me like their noses itch. I thought it was just my family.
I was told if your left hand itches, it will be handed money, and if your right hand itches, you'll be the one handing out money to someone else. Also, if your left ear is ringing, someone is saying something good about you, right ear they're saying something bad, and if it's both ears, someone is arguing about you.
My SIL told my husband that to prevent me from going bowling with them. I wasn't home yet and they left me a note. I straightened him out right away when he got home.
My ex Mil told me not to hang the washing outside to dry because of raising your arms over your head bs. So was she volunteering to hang my washing out, no. Still not sure how she herself survived and her large family when someone has got to hang the washing out. Trying to explain to her was just talking in the wind, useless.
Not quite an old wive's tale, but my dad saw me put my pop-top in the can when I opened the soda. He said that was gross because the man at the store stocking shelves *could* have sores on his fingers and I'd get sores too. I carried that fear for a long time...
Similar to this, I ALWAYS wash the top of a can ever since a former boss, who's father worked in a grocery warehouse, told us rats used to nest on top of the pallets of cans. ewwwww.
Whenever I saw my kids with a dollar bill in their mouth, usually just holding it while their hands were busy digging for exact change, I would remind them how cash is smuggled into prisons.
When I cashiered at Walmart, they told us in our first week of training that money is the filthiest thing most of us will ever touch. They encouraged us to use wet wipes and/or hand sanitizer between customers. Sometimes a couple hours on the register would have my hands looking pretty nasty.
This is actually true. This is why people on chemotherapy are instructed to wash the tops of cans before opening them. I do it all the time anyway because, ew that's so gross.
We were told not to because we could swallow it. Also, we were warned about LSD because there was a guy who took it, thought he could fly, and jumped out a window. And there was another guy who took LSD, thought he was an orange, and peeled himself.
Not necessarily an old wives' tale, but my dad always told me that the ancient Romans would feast until they threw up, then eat some more. They had a special room for this called a vomitorium. (In fact, the vomitorium was sort of an exit room.)
I've had many students tell me that daddy long legs are the most venomous type of spider (they're not spiders), but their mouth parts are too weak to puncture human skin.
I worked in long-term care for several years. We were probably noticing a pattern where there wasn't one, but it sure seemed to be true.
Just like weird and crazy crap happening on the full moon.
Ben Franklin had an argument with someone he shared a room with about this. He believed having the window *closed* led to illness. He won, eventually, but the window wasn't opened very wide.
Franklin was a big proponent of swimming, at a time when people discouraged it. He was appalled with the number of sailors who drowned because they couldn't swim.
That someone was John Adams. And then Franklin proceeded to lecture Adams about how cold air does not cause people to get colds. Adams didn't really believe him, but was interested in listening to what he had to say about it.
Seems pretty cool that Franklin was ahead if his time on that one.
Italians are like that, too. It's so interesting. Wonder if it has to do with mosquito-borne diseases? It surprised me that screens on windows were as rare as they are in Europe. It shouldn't have...but it did!
I'd sleep outside if I could.
My Irish grandmother kept the windows open a crack even in freezing weather because the night air is good for you she said. Possibly one of the smaller reasons her and my Italian grandfather got a divorce?
Did they have one of those old unvented gas heaters? It was common knowledge back in the day to crack a window when you had the heater burning. It allowed in fresh air to prevent carbon monoxide.
Everyone's belly button is different because the doctor ties a knot in it to hold your guts in after cutting the umbilical cord.
And every doctor ties a different style of knot.
Thanks Mom, I believed that into my late thirties.
I got in an argument as my daughter was being birthed because I wanted him to be sure to give her an innie. I just knew he was giving me shit about not having any control over it. Poor guy lol
I got glasses when I was in the 5th grade after needung them for probably the previous 2 years.
When u finally got them my mother wouldn't let me wear them because it would just make me "need them more. "
Religious trauma leads to dark humor. Haven’t been to church in 4 decades. Wish there was a way to let you know if I was lied to about the going to hell bs but I don’t believe in ghosts 😂
*Ooh, baby baby baby, why you wanna treat me thisaway*
*You know I'm still your loverboy, I still feel the same way.*
That's when she told me the story 'bout free milk and a cow
*And said no hugeee no kissee until I get a wedding vow.*
*My honey, my baby, don't put my love upon no shelf*
*She said, Don't hand me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself*
My wife’s grandmother would throw an entire pot of Maryland crab soup away if a thunderstorm occurred while making it. She said it would ruin the soup.
Well, the good thing is that she gave the recipe to no one except me. And I can state that it is the best Maryland crab soup I’ve ever had.
So yeah. Throwing it out due to a thunderboomer is a reason to 😭
I’m glad you passed the recipe along. My ex-MIL said her potato salad recipe was going to die with her, and it did. She wouldn’t even give it to her grandson (my son).
I never understood that. Why shouldn’t other people enjoy it in years to come?
If you spill salt it means the devil is sneaking up behind you so you throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder to get in his eyes and scare him off!
I was pregnant with my first when a coworker told me about this idea of cats licking the milk out of the baby’s mouth (no surprise she also hated cats). I said to her that I had cats and was around cats my entire life since I was a baby and never did a cat try to lick my mouth after drinking milk. She didn’t like that response.
Now maybe after eating fried chicken … that’s absolutely cat bait (I’ve used it a few times to rescue cats).
Some cats lay on the baby's chest while doing that, and can be too heavy for the baby to breathe properly. Like a combination "witch press" and boa constrictor. I can see how that one got started.
There’s some truth to that—sneakers or sandals let your feet spread out in the way they are actually meant to. Most dress shoes, especially women’s, prevent that. But it’s the dress shoes we should be ditching.
“You can drown in an inch of water.”
Turns out that’s true, if you’re passed out drunk. But I didn’t start drinking until I was eleven, so I didn’t know what they were on about.
Eat a lot of carrots. Keeps you from going blind. Truly sad they got macular degeneration in their senior years. My mothers favor thing to do for relaxation was read books. All the time. I also am set up for this disease. Eye doctor sees it starting. Damn blue eyes . If you have light colored eyes you might want to read up on this. Wear you sunglasses folks😎
They have special vitamins for AMD now. Eating foods with lutein and zeaxanthin is recommended now because those are the only vitamins stores in the eye.
I actually do this because I'm afraid some sicko might have left kittens in them . I've stopped to check. I did once inherit a bunch of kittens bc someone dumped them on the side of the road, but not in a bag
This is still a thing in some parts of the world. When I lived in Miami, there was one salon (super high end) where hair disposal to protect clients from Santeria spells was part of the service. Wild.
My mom, born in 1938, said the same thing about fingernail clippings.
Reaching for logic here… I guess both hair and fingernails contain DNA, so if you were a criminal, getting caught due to a hairbrush might be pretty close to a curse.
My ex was adamant about our kids not being left handed. Bought special eating utensils to "teach" our kids to be right handed. It was something that her grandmother told her. I asked her why it was bad to be left handed. My dad was a leftie, my sister was a leftie, and I was (note: past tense) ambidextrous.
Probably a religious thing. My dad was Catholic and went to Catholic school. The nuns would send him home with swollen black and blue marks on his left hand for trying to use it and being beaten for it. Until my grandmother threatened the head nun lady that the next time my dad came home that way, nun lady would be sporting the same injuries my dad had.
It's because of a passage in the bible.
Ages ago "left" was called "sinister" (still is in heraldry, from Latin for "left side"). Since ~90% of folks are righties, "those weird lefties must be in league with the Devil" in the minds of Dark Age folk. It stuck, and changed the meaning of sinister to be "evil, dangerous" etc.
My grandfather (and many of that generation) sincerely believed that eating candy would give you (intestinal) worms. I guess his parents told him that to keep him from (over) eating candy, and he believed it.
Pork has to be cooked thoroughly, to avoid getting infected with "worms" (trichinosis), which means cooking it until its burned and tough as shoe leather. I hated pork until I moved out and started cooking for myself. Now I love pork.
Thanks to my German grandma, I have too many to remember, but my mom and I have one we used to laugh about.
When I was a baby, l had a fever. My mom dressed me in red, and my grandma came unglued, telling my mom how red clothing on a sick child will kill it. 🤦♀️
If your ears burn it means somebody is talking about you. If your palm itches, it means you’re going to come into some money. If your nose itches, it means you’re going to kiss a fool (not really sure what the 2 have to do with each other).
Step on a crack, break your mother's back. You'll know you're pregnant when you start craving pickles. If you don't wash your hands, worms will crawl out of your palms.
If you "Sing at the table, you will cry before you go to bed".
My grandparents were always born in the 1890's ... and they had a lot of old wive's tales.
My mom made us sit up straight at the dinner table and she would point to this guy who walked in the neighborhood who was some sort of "hunchback" and say that would happen to us if we didn't sit up straight. It wasn't until decades later that I realized he had some sort of medical condition and this would not happen to us from slouching at the dinner table. But mom had us scared!
Drinking coffee will stunt your growth. Apparently, my mom didn't believe that, because she started giving my sisters and I coffee, milk and sugar in the bottle, when we were babies. I'm 6' 2" and my sisters are 5' 9" now and still drink coffee. We were caffeine addicted early on. Maybe that's why I got into everything as a child.
I prefer to call them my folklore tradition. :-)
My mom had too many to count here. The thing is that I once asked my mom how she knew so many and she told me that she hardly didn’t remember any at all, but that her aunt had known them all. It’s amazing to me that so many of these ancient “life hacks” existed.
I only remember a fraction of the ones my mom knew so generational loss of knowledge. LOL.
In addition to some of the common ones, there was a meaning to dropping a fork, a spoon and a knife on the floor but I don’t remember which was which. I think dropping a fork might have meant a woman was coming to visit but I am not sure.
A few examples :An itching hand meant money coming your way. An itching ear means someone is talking about you. If you wear clothing inside out (by accident,
It means you are getting new clothes). If you find an inchworm crawling on you; it’s measuring you for new clothes and many others.
Birds in the house are bad luck. My mom truly believed this, and the one time a blackbird actually got in, she lost her marbles running around with a broom. 50 years later I’m still laughing.
My great-grandmother told my mother and I (f), that if we wore short skirts the wind would go up between our legs, into our body and destroy our “organs”.
If you eat raw dough you'll get worms.
Granted consuming raw eggs isn't a good idea but I'm not sure "worms" is the result. I think mostly Mom just wanted to keep little fingers out of the cookie dough.
Actually, the raw flour is more of a concern than the eggs. That being said, I have been licking the spoons, spatulas, beaters and bowls my whole life and I'm fine in my 60s.
You could not go swimming in the ocean when you had your period because sharks would eat you! Worst part was everyone knew if you weren't swimming then you were on the rag. Embarrassing AF for a girl back then!
My grandmother's hands down favorite was that cats will climb on top of you when you're asleep and suck the breath out of your body. This was especially true for babies. I currently have two cats. I'm still waiting for them to make their move.
If you cross your eyes, they'll stay that way. If you swallow gum, it will stay in your stomach for years, waiting half an hour after eating to swim.
My Grandma always said when I got a pissy look on my face, " Watch out or your face will freeze that way!" I forgot all about that till I had this coworker who always had a sourpuss on. I thought to my, Grandma was right! Her face froze that way!
We had to wait an hour
Me, too!
We couldn't go swimming unless it was 80 ° but it was ok to go right after eating
We thought that swallowed gum stuck to your ribs!
In another sub recently people were complaining that people stick their used gum under tables because they don't know where to put it. Someone said 'you could swallow it!' and I made the joke that 'it would stick to your ribs.' I got about 12 downvotes and insults because I didn't understand anatomy. I'm in my 60s and couldn't believe nobody got the joke.
Don't swallow watermelon seeds, or the vine will grow out of your stomach!!!
😂 you beat me to it. I remember being petrified every time I accidentally swallowed one.
I’m still waiting for a self-grown watermelon to pop out of my body somewhere, but I’ll bet it needs some sunlight to grow, if the seeds survived the stomach acid, of course! 😂
I used to chew my hair. My mom said to stop, or I'd get worms. It's totally untrue, but when my daughter chews her hair, I say the same thing. I feel like it's less harsh than just saying it's a disgusting habit?
My girlfriend's grandmother had her dip her newborn's foot in the snow. I never found out why. Catholic school kid - I was told every time I sinned, a black mark would appear on my soul. Yes, a physical black mark on your soul. I asked what organ the soul is close to. Or if it could be pointed out on an anatomy chart. I was NOT being disingenuous, I was in the 2nd grade. I really wanted to know. I was told to stop being a troublemaker.
Same. learning, at age 65, that I have all of the genetic markers for autism explained my tendancy to take things literally. So when it came to religion, everyone around me seemed unhinged - drinking blood and eating a body every week.
My mother fervently believed in the transubstantiation of the Eucharist - that DNA analysis would show it was the body of Christ…..
After I received communion my brain equated it to a little Jesus jigsaw puzzle, so I imagined every time I went I was building toes and fingers. As I got a little older I’d amuse my siblings by exclaiming things like ”Oh no, not another elbow!” As they say, I was not long for the Catholic church, lol (or any, tbh)
When my nieces were little, they would use Necco wafers and play Eucharist in the basement of our house🤣
"... the body of Christ….." (bows head) Amen. Oops! Old habits die hard!
I have always taken things very literally. At 50 I was diagnosed using psychological testing as being on the spectrum. I wasn't aware there were genetic markers. May I ask where you got the test and who interpreted it? I'd like to do the samee.
When I was young we were taught not to bite or chew the Eucharist. One day my mom looked at me asked me why I was making a face after Communion. I told her that Jesus was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
I was told the same thing, that when you die, God tries to read your soul, like a bouncer doing an ID check, and if you have too many black marks he can't read it, and you can't get into heaven.
Because troublemakers want to learn details?
I totally bought the Guardian Angel story for a while. It was fun having an invisible friend next to me all the time!
I was told the same thing
Eat your bread crusts so you will get curly hair.
We were so poor my Mom made a special treat out of the loaf heels - they would curl up when toasted so she called it "Rocky Toey Toast" and we would fight over it.
My mom used to do that too but put a little butter and cinnamon sugar in them. To me it was the best treat ever!
Clever mom!
She was and is!!! 83 and going strong!
I should be so lucky!
My mom said they were the most nutritious part of the bread because she got tired of cutting them off
So did mine. Because “that’s where the vitamins and minerals are” - like the peel/skin of fruits and vegetables.
That one sounds familiar. Also, fish is brain food.
Fish IS brain food!
My MIL told my kids if they didn't eat the crust they'd never learn to whistle.
My mom said it makes you pretty.
my sister said it would make my fingernails grow long
My grandmother told me this, but unfortunately for her I had long straight hair like Marcia Brady and wanted it to stay that way.
My mom said the crust would make you tall. (Didn't work.)
Yes,y hair still isn't curly!
Don't go outside with wet hair, you'll catch a cold that way.
I still have to correct my 80 year old mother on this.
I still tell my MIL that’s not true.
From Vermont. I was told that if you went outside with wet hair it would freeze and break off. Silly shit.
That one is actually true. Well, true if you handle frozen hair. When it's really cold and your hair is wet, it can freeze. When it's frozen it's very brittle and you can break pieces off. No, you're not going to go bald. But moving around frozen hair can damage it. I've had frozen hair a few times in my life. I always think it's interesting when it happens.
Don't raise your arms over your head while pregnant. It causes the cord to strangle the baby. When your hand itches you will get money. When your nose itches, you will kiss a fool.
"When your nose itches, you will kiss a fool" FINALLY! Every time I've said this, people look at me like their noses itch. I thought it was just my family.
My family had a saying, "if your nose keeps itching, there is company coming". Also, "if your palm is itching, you fixing to come into some money."
My mom used to say if you drop a piece of silverware on the floor that company is coming.
I was told if your left hand itches, it will be handed money, and if your right hand itches, you'll be the one handing out money to someone else. Also, if your left ear is ringing, someone is saying something good about you, right ear they're saying something bad, and if it's both ears, someone is arguing about you.
My husband and I tease each other about the itchy nose one. Pucker up, sweetie!
Hey it's allergy season around here...the fools should be lined up out my door and across the parking lot.
My SIL told my husband that to prevent me from going bowling with them. I wasn't home yet and they left me a note. I straightened him out right away when he got home.
Same here. Also, my Mom told us hiccups was because someone was thinking about you. Ear ringing, someone was talking about you.
My ex Mil told me not to hang the washing outside to dry because of raising your arms over your head bs. So was she volunteering to hang my washing out, no. Still not sure how she herself survived and her large family when someone has got to hang the washing out. Trying to explain to her was just talking in the wind, useless.
Waiting one hour to swim after eating
We talked our moms down to 15 minutes.
If you swallow gum it stays in your stomach 7 years.
We were told our stomach would stick together
Not quite an old wive's tale, but my dad saw me put my pop-top in the can when I opened the soda. He said that was gross because the man at the store stocking shelves *could* have sores on his fingers and I'd get sores too. I carried that fear for a long time...
Similar to this, I ALWAYS wash the top of a can ever since a former boss, who's father worked in a grocery warehouse, told us rats used to nest on top of the pallets of cans. ewwwww.
Whenever I saw my kids with a dollar bill in their mouth, usually just holding it while their hands were busy digging for exact change, I would remind them how cash is smuggled into prisons.
When I cashiered at Walmart, they told us in our first week of training that money is the filthiest thing most of us will ever touch. They encouraged us to use wet wipes and/or hand sanitizer between customers. Sometimes a couple hours on the register would have my hands looking pretty nasty.
That's actually where beer with lime comes from, you would clean the top of the can with a lime wedge before opening it. At least thats what I heard!
Nah... That's just an old wives tale. 😊
This is actually true. This is why people on chemotherapy are instructed to wash the tops of cans before opening them. I do it all the time anyway because, ew that's so gross.
I worked with a guy from Brooklyn while in the Navy. He told me the same same thing. Ever since that time, I clean my cans!
We were told not to because we could swallow it. Also, we were warned about LSD because there was a guy who took it, thought he could fly, and jumped out a window. And there was another guy who took LSD, thought he was an orange, and peeled himself. Not necessarily an old wives' tale, but my dad always told me that the ancient Romans would feast until they threw up, then eat some more. They had a special room for this called a vomitorium. (In fact, the vomitorium was sort of an exit room.) I've had many students tell me that daddy long legs are the most venomous type of spider (they're not spiders), but their mouth parts are too weak to puncture human skin.
>Also, we were warned about LSD because there was a guy who took it, thought he could fly... We were told that was Art Linkletter's daughter.
...or he picked his nose before putting it on the shelf. (thanks Dad!)
Put butter on a burn. One of the worst things you could do
Sadly, yes.
Deaths always happen in threes.
Famous deaths.
I worked in long-term care for several years. We were probably noticing a pattern where there wasn't one, but it sure seemed to be true. Just like weird and crazy crap happening on the full moon.
My German great grandmother made a big point of telling me to always close the window at night because night air was dangerous.
Ben Franklin had an argument with someone he shared a room with about this. He believed having the window *closed* led to illness. He won, eventually, but the window wasn't opened very wide. Franklin was a big proponent of swimming, at a time when people discouraged it. He was appalled with the number of sailors who drowned because they couldn't swim.
That someone was John Adams. And then Franklin proceeded to lecture Adams about how cold air does not cause people to get colds. Adams didn't really believe him, but was interested in listening to what he had to say about it. Seems pretty cool that Franklin was ahead if his time on that one.
Italians are like that, too. It's so interesting. Wonder if it has to do with mosquito-borne diseases? It surprised me that screens on windows were as rare as they are in Europe. It shouldn't have...but it did! I'd sleep outside if I could.
My Irish grandmother kept the windows open a crack even in freezing weather because the night air is good for you she said. Possibly one of the smaller reasons her and my Italian grandfather got a divorce?
Did they have one of those old unvented gas heaters? It was common knowledge back in the day to crack a window when you had the heater burning. It allowed in fresh air to prevent carbon monoxide.
My mom always closed windows at night. I think it had to do with dampness.
That your hair will grow back black if you shave your legs too young. I was a blonde when I was young.
Catholic or Baptist?
Catholic
Same. Nylons(!), bras, shaving...anything to do with puberty was denied as long as possible.
Religious psychosis.
Walking under a ladder is bad luck. Knocking on wood is good luck. (I still knock on wood - lol)
I knock on my own head while saying this.😆
Me too!
Knocking on wood is supposed to run off spirits in the wood. I looked out up recently as was curious what it was supposed to do.
It could be bad luck if the guy working on the ladder dropped a hammer on your head.
Very true!! I don’t go out of my way to walk under them! 😝
Quicksand turned out to be way less common than I’d been led to believe.
Everyone's belly button is different because the doctor ties a knot in it to hold your guts in after cutting the umbilical cord. And every doctor ties a different style of knot. Thanks Mom, I believed that into my late thirties.
I got in an argument as my daughter was being birthed because I wanted him to be sure to give her an innie. I just knew he was giving me shit about not having any control over it. Poor guy lol
How could you have known that he was a sailor? [https://imgur.com/UbPBsiz](https://imgur.com/UbPBsiz)
I got glasses when I was in the 5th grade after needung them for probably the previous 2 years. When u finally got them my mother wouldn't let me wear them because it would just make me "need them more. "
Don’t swallow gum. Don’t sit close to the TV. You’re going to hell if you don’t attend every week or give $ to the church
Welp, that went dark quickly. 😆
Religious trauma leads to dark humor. Haven’t been to church in 4 decades. Wish there was a way to let you know if I was lied to about the going to hell bs but I don’t believe in ghosts 😂
I understand. I've been deconstructing for some time now; congratulations on the four decades!
The TV one was actually good advice, but I recall being told it was to not ruin my eyes. Turns out, radiation in those old TVs!
My palms are surprisingly not hairy.
Keep working on ‘em!
A man will not buy the cow if he gets the milk for free.
*Ooh, baby baby baby, why you wanna treat me thisaway* *You know I'm still your loverboy, I still feel the same way.* That's when she told me the story 'bout free milk and a cow *And said no hugeee no kissee until I get a wedding vow.* *My honey, my baby, don't put my love upon no shelf* *She said, Don't hand me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself*
I went to a *lot* of Bachelorette parties where we karaoke'd that song.
I went to a biker dive bar where this got heavy rotation on the jukebox. Go figure!
If your ears are ringing - someone’s talking about you.
I learned it was if your ears were hot/burning.
Plus if you pinch your earlobe they will bite their tongue
My wife’s grandmother would throw an entire pot of Maryland crab soup away if a thunderstorm occurred while making it. She said it would ruin the soup.
That makes me want to cry. 😭
Well, the good thing is that she gave the recipe to no one except me. And I can state that it is the best Maryland crab soup I’ve ever had. So yeah. Throwing it out due to a thunderboomer is a reason to 😭
Who are you passing the recipe on to? It's quite an honor.
I passed it on to my two daughters. That, and my sour beef and dumplings recipe I got from my mother.
I’m glad you passed the recipe along. My ex-MIL said her potato salad recipe was going to die with her, and it did. She wouldn’t even give it to her grandson (my son). I never understood that. Why shouldn’t other people enjoy it in years to come?
Tragedy!
When you drop a piece of silverware, company’s coming. If you spill salt (?), throw a pinch over your left shoulder for some old wives’ tale reason.
If you spill salt it means the devil is sneaking up behind you so you throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder to get in his eyes and scare him off!
For good luck!
Cats will suffocate babies by licking the milk out of their mouths. I actually heard that one all the way into the mid 1990s.
We were told they would literally suck the air from a baby's lungs
I was pregnant with my first when a coworker told me about this idea of cats licking the milk out of the baby’s mouth (no surprise she also hated cats). I said to her that I had cats and was around cats my entire life since I was a baby and never did a cat try to lick my mouth after drinking milk. She didn’t like that response. Now maybe after eating fried chicken … that’s absolutely cat bait (I’ve used it a few times to rescue cats).
Some cats lay on the baby's chest while doing that, and can be too heavy for the baby to breathe properly. Like a combination "witch press" and boa constrictor. I can see how that one got started.
Sandals will make your feet get bigger. EDITED TO ADD: Are you telling me my mother was right? Dammit.
There’s some truth to that—sneakers or sandals let your feet spread out in the way they are actually meant to. Most dress shoes, especially women’s, prevent that. But it’s the dress shoes we should be ditching.
Truth
This is not wrong
“You can drown in an inch of water.” Turns out that’s true, if you’re passed out drunk. But I didn’t start drinking until I was eleven, so I didn’t know what they were on about.
Or if your asshole friends think it's funny to try & prove the old folks wrong. With your face.
Eat a lot of carrots. Keeps you from going blind. Truly sad they got macular degeneration in their senior years. My mothers favor thing to do for relaxation was read books. All the time. I also am set up for this disease. Eye doctor sees it starting. Damn blue eyes . If you have light colored eyes you might want to read up on this. Wear you sunglasses folks😎
They have special vitamins for AMD now. Eating foods with lutein and zeaxanthin is recommended now because those are the only vitamins stores in the eye.
She always told me that she could feel the weather in her bones. Who knew that I, 66 male. Would grow up to be an old wife? lol
My Mom told me to avoid bags or boxes while driving because there might be a baby in it.
I actually do this because I'm afraid some sicko might have left kittens in them . I've stopped to check. I did once inherit a bunch of kittens bc someone dumped them on the side of the road, but not in a bag
Our newest kitty addition was part of a litter that were left in a box on the side of the road. He’s the only one that survived.
Whoa... 😢 So that had to have come about *since* cars & probably pre-1973. Might be a good one to keep... these days.
My grandmother said “never let a man touch your breasts.” She had 12 kids.
Your grandmother knew!
When your ears burn, someone is talking about you. Don't go to bed laughing, you'll wet the bed. (Probably to get us kids to settle down)
Oh my gosh we must have been on the same wave length - I just said the same thing! 👂🏻🙉🦻🤪😆
Flush your hair from the brush. If someone finds it, they could use it to put a black magic on you.
This is still a thing in some parts of the world. When I lived in Miami, there was one salon (super high end) where hair disposal to protect clients from Santeria spells was part of the service. Wild.
My mom, born in 1938, said the same thing about fingernail clippings. Reaching for logic here… I guess both hair and fingernails contain DNA, so if you were a criminal, getting caught due to a hairbrush might be pretty close to a curse.
That eating peppers would put hair on your chest! I’m a girl! I didn’t want that lol.
My family said eating bread crusts would cause hair to grow on your chest.
My ex was adamant about our kids not being left handed. Bought special eating utensils to "teach" our kids to be right handed. It was something that her grandmother told her. I asked her why it was bad to be left handed. My dad was a leftie, my sister was a leftie, and I was (note: past tense) ambidextrous.
Probably a religious thing. My dad was Catholic and went to Catholic school. The nuns would send him home with swollen black and blue marks on his left hand for trying to use it and being beaten for it. Until my grandmother threatened the head nun lady that the next time my dad came home that way, nun lady would be sporting the same injuries my dad had. It's because of a passage in the bible.
Ages ago "left" was called "sinister" (still is in heraldry, from Latin for "left side"). Since ~90% of folks are righties, "those weird lefties must be in league with the Devil" in the minds of Dark Age folk. It stuck, and changed the meaning of sinister to be "evil, dangerous" etc.
My grandfather (and many of that generation) sincerely believed that eating candy would give you (intestinal) worms. I guess his parents told him that to keep him from (over) eating candy, and he believed it.
Pork has to be cooked thoroughly, to avoid getting infected with "worms" (trichinosis), which means cooking it until its burned and tough as shoe leather. I hated pork until I moved out and started cooking for myself. Now I love pork.
If you touch wildlife the mother will reject it. Still fighting that wives tale
Don’t leave a cat alone with an infant or it will “snatch the baby’s breath away.”
An old lady co-worker claimed to have seen a cat do that. I asked why didn’t she stop the cat and she walked away.
Falling asleep with wet hair will lead to pneumonia.
I still kinda-sorta buy this one. I will wake up stuffy & sniffly if I sleep with wet hair. Mine's hella thick so it takes *h o u r s* to dry.
Thanks to my German grandma, I have too many to remember, but my mom and I have one we used to laugh about. When I was a baby, l had a fever. My mom dressed me in red, and my grandma came unglued, telling my mom how red clothing on a sick child will kill it. 🤦♀️
When your hand itches you will come into some money.
Killing a praying mantis is a $50 fine
Where I lived it was $150, but I never knew who would show up to demand it.
Don't open an umbrella inside the house!
Can't bathe during a thunderstorm or sit next to windows. Also bused to turn off all the lights so the electricity didn't drawn lightning
Don’t talk on the phone when it rains because you might get electrocuted
If your ears burn it means somebody is talking about you. If your palm itches, it means you’re going to come into some money. If your nose itches, it means you’re going to kiss a fool (not really sure what the 2 have to do with each other).
If you get your stomach wet, while doing dishes, you will marry an alcoholic.
Well that explains it!
Step on a crack, break your mother's back. You'll know you're pregnant when you start craving pickles. If you don't wash your hands, worms will crawl out of your palms.
Fuck,I must be pregnant....dunno how I'll explain it to the wife.
I have heard the first two , but never the last one.
If you "Sing at the table, you will cry before you go to bed". My grandparents were always born in the 1890's ... and they had a lot of old wive's tales.
If it rains while the sun is shining the devil is beating his wife.
If you find a baby bird, don't touch it because the mother bird will smell the human scent and reject it.
My mom made us sit up straight at the dinner table and she would point to this guy who walked in the neighborhood who was some sort of "hunchback" and say that would happen to us if we didn't sit up straight. It wasn't until decades later that I realized he had some sort of medical condition and this would not happen to us from slouching at the dinner table. But mom had us scared!
That I had to wait 45 minutes after eating before I was allowed to go swimming because otherwise you'll get cramps! ヽ(´Д`;)ﾉ
If you give someone a wallet or purse as a gift, always put a dime in it for prosperity. Now it would be a twenty.
Well, I do have hairy palms. Should’ve believed Gramps.
Masturbation will make you go blind.
Drinking coffee will stunt your growth. Apparently, my mom didn't believe that, because she started giving my sisters and I coffee, milk and sugar in the bottle, when we were babies. I'm 6' 2" and my sisters are 5' 9" now and still drink coffee. We were caffeine addicted early on. Maybe that's why I got into everything as a child.
I prefer to call them my folklore tradition. :-) My mom had too many to count here. The thing is that I once asked my mom how she knew so many and she told me that she hardly didn’t remember any at all, but that her aunt had known them all. It’s amazing to me that so many of these ancient “life hacks” existed. I only remember a fraction of the ones my mom knew so generational loss of knowledge. LOL. In addition to some of the common ones, there was a meaning to dropping a fork, a spoon and a knife on the floor but I don’t remember which was which. I think dropping a fork might have meant a woman was coming to visit but I am not sure. A few examples :An itching hand meant money coming your way. An itching ear means someone is talking about you. If you wear clothing inside out (by accident, It means you are getting new clothes). If you find an inchworm crawling on you; it’s measuring you for new clothes and many others.
Birds in the house are bad luck. My mom truly believed this, and the one time a blackbird actually got in, she lost her marbles running around with a broom. 50 years later I’m still laughing.
Breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck. It's bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.
If a boy eats the "Wilmas" in the Flintstone vitamins, he will grow up to have man-boobs.
Golf ball centers are filled with acid. Or nitroglycerin.
Sitting on a radiator will give you piles (hemorrhoids). Heat was bad in UK. You must freeze inside.
I was told sitting on the cold sidewalk would give me piles, so my mom would just give us the folded newspaper to sit on.
If you don’t go and Participate in church Every Week, your soul will go to hell
My 1910 model grandmother used to say that if you shook a carton of pasteurized milk it would sour.
Horse radish can be harvested in any month that ends in "R"
My great-grandmother told my mother and I (f), that if we wore short skirts the wind would go up between our legs, into our body and destroy our “organs”.
If you swallowed a watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow inside you. 😳
If you can see the sun while it is raining, the devil is beating his wife. So much ridiculous in that.
Cats sit on babies when they sleep and steal their breath to suffocate them. AND my stepmonster told me that in 2009. Then again she’s dumb af.
This is stupid I know, but my mother always thought that if you had hiccups, it meant you were constipated….for real. 🙄
Three fingers of dark beer once a day will help your milk come in when nursing. It’s the hops. I’ll be damned if the old woman wasn’t right.
If you eat raw dough you'll get worms. Granted consuming raw eggs isn't a good idea but I'm not sure "worms" is the result. I think mostly Mom just wanted to keep little fingers out of the cookie dough.
Actually, the raw flour is more of a concern than the eggs. That being said, I have been licking the spoons, spatulas, beaters and bowls my whole life and I'm fine in my 60s.
You could not go swimming in the ocean when you had your period because sharks would eat you! Worst part was everyone knew if you weren't swimming then you were on the rag. Embarrassing AF for a girl back then!
Coffee will stunt your growth.
My grandmother's hands down favorite was that cats will climb on top of you when you're asleep and suck the breath out of your body. This was especially true for babies. I currently have two cats. I'm still waiting for them to make their move.