Unutterably Silly Funny Things My (Insert Relative Here) Told Me

[bjones6416]

From my mother (90 years old):

Never count the cars in a funeral procession, because the number of cars will be the number of years you have left to live. (I've told her she SHOULD count the cars in some of those longer processions!)

Already mentioned here, but right palm itching means you'll shake hands with a stranger and left palm itching means you'll get some money. Also already mentioned -- if your ears are burning, someone's talking about you.

If you have a little bump on your tongue, it's a "story bump" and it means you've been telling lies.

Spilling salt will bring you bad luck unless you immediately pick up some and throw it over your left shoulder.

And my daddy used to tell me when I was a little girl that if I kissed my own elbow I'd turn into a boy. He also told me if I were to put salt on a bird's tail I would be able to catch it.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Spilling salt will bring you bad luck unless you immediately pick up some and throw it over your left shoulder.

My Mum told me that, so one day when I spilled some salt, I threw it over my shoulder straight into my Grandmother's eyes...

[Skye Savoy]

[QUOTE=bjones6416;1598261]From my mother (90 years old):


Spilling salt will bring you bad luck unless you immediately pick up some and throw it over your left shoulder.


I always heard it was the right shoulder. Hmmm.

[Bikeridr]

Originally Posted by orlok

My Mum told me that, so one day when I spilled some salt, I threw it over my shoulder straight into my Grandmother's eyes...

Originally Posted by Skye Savoy

I always heard it was the right shoulder. Hmmm.

Maybe that's what orlok proved when throwing salt into Grandmother's eyes..

One should spit (or make spitting sound) when one sees a black cat crossing in front of ones path.
My Dad *always* "spit" at *any* cat, regardless of crossing path or not.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Bikeridr

One should spit (or make spitting sound) when one sees a black cat crossing in front of ones path.
My Dad *always* "spit" at *any* cat, regardless of crossing path or not.

Or turn your purse around the other way, if you're driving and have your purse beside you. Failing that, you can make three "X's" in the air with your fingertip and then draw an imaginary line through them. I have to do that when I'm out walking and don't have my purse with me.

[Pookeysgirl]

My grandfather was like a dad to me growing up. The only family member I reall cared about. He didn't have any superstitious sayings but he did say a few things over and over again that have stuck in my head over the years.

Whenever I would bring him a drink (usually a beer) he would say: "Your generosity is overwhelming, it's only exceeded by your good looks and charming personality"...I say it to my kids now since he's no longer with us.

Also, when I was a kid all the other kids would say "Step on a crack, break your mothers back". Kids were falling all over the place trying to avoid the cracks!

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by encapuchado

Thanks for the link. I guess many of these things have an European origin and from there they jumped the pond to the new world.

I think people would be surprised that a lot of the sayings they thought were just some family member's quirk are actually very old. There are collections of folklore that remind me of the books Barney Fife used to read when the Darlings were in town (for those of you who get that reference.) Some time back I was doing google searches on old folklore and folk medicine from the area and found lots of things that were familiar. For instance this one:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Oud...page&q&f=false

one of the first ones I noticed-- number 5385-- says that if someone plants a weeping willow, they will die before it is old enough to shade their grave. My grandmother used to say that about a ceder she had planted in the yard. I pointed out that the reason for that bit of folklore is probably related to the tree simply taking a long time to grow. (FWIW, it went from an abandoned Christmas tree rescued before I was born to a tree taller than the nearby telephone pole before she died.)

BTW, the books are available at archive.org:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?qu...ina%20Folklore

[kindlekitten]

barney fife?
mayberry?

darlings?
Peter Pan?

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

barney fife?
mayberry?

darlings?
Peter Pan?

This video, about 5 minutes in.



The folklore isn't as exaggerated as one might think.

[Skye Savoy]

Thank you all for sharing such great info!
I heard one the other day from my sister in-law: It's bad luck to sweep dirt over the threshold of the door.
Not sure where that one came from. I've done it and never had bad luck (that I know of.)