Don’t ya just love those old superstitions. A favourite of mine was my gran used to tell me to eat the crust of bread. This would make my hair curly…
Come on, who amongst us would not want curly locks? Like a big girl I twirl my locks from time to time. Even though, sad to say, those locks aren’t as colourful as they used to be.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I was told that if I picked my nose, my brains would fall out, and you know what? They did!
Yep! That was one I was told – and I didn’t want curly hair!
Could it be that I was just awkward? My Mum always reckoned I was – I refused to eat the crusts and still ended up with curly hair – which, even now, I hate!
On a slightly serious note – there are “Old Wives’ Tales” and “Old Wives’ tales”…
There are those like the “Crusts and Curly Hair” and Gazoopi’s “picking one’s nose” (which I never heard) or one’s rude face being stuck “if the wind changed”…
Then there are the comments about “How the children in India would love to eat the food that I refused to eat” – to which my comment was always “Well send it to them”….
(Maybe Mum WAS right!)
And then there were the “Old Wives” recipes for dealing with injuries and other minor health issues… many of which have been found to be pretty efficacious. Anyone out there ever suffered from “hot bread poultices”? I used to get lots of infections from cuts which turned septic – out came the bit of rag with bread dipped in boiling water and pressed onto the infected whatever… to draw out the poison… b**y painful – but it always worked!
My dear old gran used to “See a pin and pick it up, then all day you will have luck”.
My dear old aunt, her daughter, was following this advice one day. She saw a pin on the pavement, bent over to pick it up, overbalanced, smacked her face on the paving stone and ended up in Accident and Emergency to have her broken nose fixed, and had to get a new pair of specs as well!!
My dear old gran used to SAY…….. etc..
I was told as a child that if you did ‘it’ you would go blind or, at best, grow hairs on the palms of your hands. Nowadays, how to do ‘it’ is an approved subject in the primary school curriculum. The world’s going mad, mad, I tell you.
OZ
OZ, are you saying that was just an old wives tale?
Damn, all those years wasted.
Look on the bright side, gazoopi. At least you are not now the wizened husk of the Adonis you undoubtedly became.
OZ