Superstition

Gary O' said:
Yeah, I know...but, why? Where'd it come from?

...and why were they always doing it to me?
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Because they were 'gurls' and they heard some gossip about you. Or maybe you wore your pants like the current generation with your rear end showing.

Where did it come from? It's like skipping rope songs. No one knows who made them up.

Example:
I had a little dog. His name was Jim. I took him to the tub to teach him to swim.
He drank all the water, he ate all the soap, I had to call the doctor or else he would croak.

It's amazing that I can remember the words from 75 years ago and I can't remember what I had yesterday for lunch.
 

I looked up that "rubbing forefingers" gesture, and Google says the origin is unknown, but it is thought to symbolize friction. Maybe at one time it was considered shameful to cause friction?

Then I got interested enough to look up several other gestures. I learned that "fingers crossed" (hoping for good luck) was an early gesture of the Catholic church. Never knew that. Wikipedia has an interesting list of symbolic gestures, some of them just used by one culture, and others pretty much universal.
 
Sunny said:
I looked up that "rubbing forefingers" gesture, and Google says the origin is unknown, but it is thought to symbolize friction. Maybe at one time it was considered shameful to cause friction?
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I'm thinking maybe it was getting stuff off the person doing it, like washing the hands of things
 
I'm not at all superstitious. That said, my mother died on Friday the 13th which some immediately blamed on the unlucky date. (Mom had suffered a catastrophic stroke nine days earlier and her death was imminent after that event.)

My perspective - it wasn't that she died on Friday the 13th, it was that she didn't die on February 14th. Even in a coma there's no way my mother would have brought any sadness to Valentine's Day for her family. She loved all holidays, major and minor. Her death on Friday the 13th was a final gift to those she loved.
 
I was born on a 13 but luckily it was on a Sunday. I've still have had my share of bad luck, but nothing I would consider horrible.

I'm a little superstitious, like if two bad things happen then I expect a third bad thing to happen. One day I was leaving the house to do an errand and just about everything was going wrong, so I turned the car around and went home and hoped nothing else would happen on the drive home. On the other hand, I have no problem walking under a ladder if I have no choice. I also have had black cats and right now have two black cats.
 
My mother was very superstitious, here are some of her weird ones.

When a guest leaves don't change their bed and wash the sheets until you know they are safely home
Don't lay loafs of bread on their head/top
She would make the sign of the cross before leaving on a car ride
 
I say "Kinehora" in situations that I feel call for it: Someone says, "You look great!" I answer, "I feel great, Kinehora!" This is done, in Jewish tradition, to keep the Evil Eye from focusing on you, to quash your good luck. I also hold a button, as I drive past graveyards. That supposedly keeps the spirits of the dead from inhabiting your body. I can't remember what woman taught me that one. Silly stuff, to be sure, but I still do it, because you never know.........

I don't do Friday the 13th avoidance stuff, no problems with black cats (I had two, a brother and sister, for a very long time), no broken mirror thing. I don't walk under ladders, usually, because in my business, that may get you killed, no lie!
 
Camper6 said:
Because they were 'gurls' and they heard some gossip about you. Or maybe you wore your pants like the current generation with your rear end showing.

Where did it come from? It's like skipping rope songs. No one knows who made them up.

Example:
I had a little dog. His name was Jim. I took him to the tub to teach him to swim.
He drank all the water, he ate all the soap, I had to call the doctor or else he would croak.

It's amazing that I can remember the words from 75 years ago and I can't remember what I had yesterday for lunch.
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I know what you mean. A week or so ago I was singing a song about a dog named Bingo my dad sang to me about 72 or 73 years ago and yet I have to keep a small daily journal so I'll know the main things that happened and where I was each day.
 
Linda said:
I have to keep a small daily journal so I'll know the main things that happened and where I was each day.
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I do that and it bugs me why I bother, especially since I seldom go back to read the notes unless I'm trying to remember what day I went grocery shopping or some other activity. It almost feels like I have a need to write down every minute of each day, I even write down the times I go to sleep and wake up or the times I take a nap. It feels obsessive to me.
 
PVC said:
My mother was very superstitious, here are some of her weird ones.

When a guest leaves don't change their bed and wash the sheets until you know they are safely home
Don't lay loafs of bread on their head/top
She would make the sign of the cross before leaving on a car ride
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Why? Was Ted Kennedy driving?
 

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