Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Things My Elders Told Me...Truths To Be Passed on To A New Generation


Sitting here on a misty Tuesday morning feeling 10 years older than dirt thinking about me as a kid and all the things my older relatives told me that were supposed to help me on my life's journey.  Some were wise, some were weird, some made no sense at all, but as a young child who liked to hang out and listen to adults I took it all in.
Here are a few gleamings;
My Mother told me not to wear lipstick that I would lose the natural color of my lips if I did.  Don't know if she was right, but I've worn little lipstick through my life and I still have colorful lips.
She also told me smoking would make my breasts small, I know she was trying to stop me from smoking, but this was one of the weird ones.  Well I did have small breasts when I was a smoker and larger ones when I quit, but I'm pretty sure that had more to do with putting on weight than not smoking.
Of course she told me that eating crusts would make my hair curly, HA, that eating carrots would make my eyes better, that's not going to happen, and that fish was brain food.  Probably all good advice, but I'm still the world's fussiest eater.
My maternal Grandmother told me that Dragonflies were God's darning needles and that if I lied that they'd sew my lips shut,  that one use to worry me a lot.
My paternal Grandmother, not to be out done, told me that if I wasn't careful that I'd go down the drain in the bathtub.  Thanks Granny, that one has added to my nightmares through the years.
My Dad probably gave me the best advice, don't bother people when they're busy even if it doesn't look like they're busy.  This one has kept me out of a lot of trouble through the years.
I'm sure I've given  my daughter more than one piece of weird and wonderful advice.

4 comments:

  1. Have just found you through Sharons MM ...had to smile at this post as I remember so many of those peices of advice. Your fathers was brilliant but your grandmothers made me roar. I love doing FH and have a seperate blog of Scrapping LO's that I produce using my old photos. My late husbands maternal great grand father fought in the Civil War and ended up living in Georgia in the late 1890's

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  2. Yes both of my grandmothers could come out with some doozies. I'm really enjoying the family history work i'm doing. We're Georgia transplans but earlier branches of my family lived here.

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  3. My dad told me coke/pepsi was made from crushed beetles - I am probably the only person on earth who has never drunk the stuff...

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  4. My Dad also told me that cows and sheep who lived on hills had 2 legs shorter than the others. For some reason I always believed my Dad more that other people and tended to pass on his words of wisdom which most people found hilarious.

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