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Peculiar (And Lost) 'Wisdom' & Advice From Our Elders

Stillill said:
No sixth sense unfortunately. I think the drowning thing comes from when sailors would buy a caul and take it to sea with them. Apparently you wouldn’t drown if you were in possession of a caul. I’m sure there was a thread on here about cauls.
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"I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether seagoing people were short of money about that time , or were short of faith and preferred cork-jackets, I don't know; all I know is that there was but one solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney ... who offered two pounds in cash and the balance in sherry .."

David Copperfield Chapter 1 page 1.
 
Visiting Russia in the 90s and 00s, lots of old women would offer unsolicited, and notably vague, advice about the "dangers" of sitting on walls and steps (although sitting on steppes was, apparently, fine).
"Why is it dangerous, babushka?"
"Because it is, everyone knows, young man."
Years later, I found out what the danger was: You'd inevitably get piles.
 
Krepostnoi said:
Visiting Russia in the 90s and 00s, lots of old women would offer unsolicited, and notably vague, advice about the "dangers" of sitting on walls and steps (although sitting on steppes was, apparently, fine).
"Why is it dangerous, babushka?"
"Because it is, everyone knows, young man."
Years later, I found out what the danger was: You'd inevitably get piles.
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My old dear swore we'd catch chincough from sitting on walls and steps.
She only told me what chincough was when I was an adult, and only then because she hadn't known it herself. Somehow she discovered it meant whooping cough.
 
Do we remembner the apple one?

So...if you find an apple that has a worm in it - you should eat that apple as it has already been given a seal of approval by the worm! My grandparents solemnly came out with that one.

Even Roald Dahl took the piss out of this, in one of his children's stories.

It's sounds logical enough - but then you think: how would a worm know in advance if an apple is any good or not? Surely they bury their way into any old apple they chance upon?
catseye said:
Oh and then, for girls, there's a whole LIST of things you mustn't do when having your period. Having a bath used to be up there with washing your hair, I'm too young to remember most of the rest but apparently there were loads.
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I remember reading Alan sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning when I was a teenager. If I've remembered this rightly there's a seuquence in that where Arthur Seaton's girlfriend gets pregnant and neither of them want a child - and this was in the pre-legal abortiion days. So what thery did was to give the woman a very hot bath - with boiling water - and poured lots of whisky down her throat at the same time. Apparently this sorted the matter out (it was a very early pregnancy). I was perplexed by this at the time and have not heard anything about this method since. Is there any truth in it? (Excuse me if this is woeful ignorance. I'm a single man).
Krepostnoi said:
Visiting Russia in the 90s and 00s, lots of old women would offer unsolicited, and notably vague, advice about the "dangers" of sitting on walls and steps (although sitting on steppes was, apparently, fine).
"Why is it dangerous, babushka?"
"Because it is, everyone knows, young man."
Years later, I found out what the danger was: You'd inevitably get piles.
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The version of this I've neard (also in Russia) is another dubious proposition about pregnancy. It was that a young woamn shouldn't sit down for long on anything cold - such as a metal bench or a rock - because that could ruin her chances of becoming pregnant.

It seems as though the starry lewdies just didn't like people sitting down!
 
Zeke Newbold said:
I remember reading Alan sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning when I was a teenager. If I've remembered this rightly there's a seuquence in that where Arthur Seaton's girlfriend gets pregnant and neither of them want a child - and this was in the pre-legal abortiion days. So what thery did was to give the woman a very hot bath - with boiling water - and poured lots of whisky down her throat at the same time. Apparently this sorted the matter out (it was a very early pregnancy). I was perplexed by this at the time and have not heard anything about this method since. Is there any truth in it? (Excuse me if this is woeful ignorance. I'm a single man).

The version of this I've neard (also in Russia) is another dubious proposition about pregnancy. It was that a young woamn shouldn't sit down for long on anything cold - such as a metal bench or a rock - because that could ruin her chances of becoming pregnant.
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It was gin. A hot bath and gin would, allegedly, bring on miscarriage. This was a very popular misconception when I was growing up (and even fairly well into my twenties). I know there is subsequent research which shows that, if a woman runs a very high temperature in early pregnancy there is a risk of miscarriage (although this may well be due to whatever illness caused the temperature, rather than the temperature itself) so this may play into it. Also the likelihood of the gin and hot bath causing a woman to faint, possibly injuring herself on the way down in such a way that may cause miscarriage.

If it were that easy to cause the loss of a baby, there would be no unwanted pregnancies. But it really, really isn't.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Pharmacy Teaching Technician made me a simple cough mixture that was basically flavoured-chloroform - hence the fridge to prevent evaporation.
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Uh-oh.
Chloroform (CHCl3) is a colorless liquid that quickly evaporates into gas. It can harm the eyes, skin, liver, kidneys, and nervous system. Chloroform can be toxic if inhaled or swallowed. Exposure to chloroform may also cause cancer.
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Zeke Newbold said:
(b) what `She is the cat's mother` is supposed to mean.
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I always thought it had something to do with cat mums (or unspayed cats) being called queen's. A 'who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheeba?' type deal. I admit though that this is just something I randomly thought of, no idea if that's how or why the use of she for cat's mother came about.
 
How about the old classic that says if you go swimming right after eating you'll get cramps and drown? This was so common I even saw it in safety PSAs and heard it in grade school health class. I never knew if it was supposed to be leg cramps or stomach cramps, and online research shows I wasn't alone in my confusion. Also, the recommended waiting time varied from 10 minutes to 2 hours!
 
ravensocks said:
I always thought it had something to do with cat mums (or unspayed cats) being called queen's. A 'who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheeba?' type deal. I admit though that this is just something I randomly thought of, no idea if that's how or why the use of she for cat's mother came about.
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In our family (S.E. Londoners), if we were talking about mum, within her hearing and used ther term "she" instead of "mum", she'd always pipe up "Oi! She's a cats mother!" Mum used it to express irritation at being referred to in the tird person, or it was insulting.
 
Stormkhan said:
In our family (S.E. Londoners), if we were talking about mum, within her hearing and used ther term "she" instead of "mum", she'd always pipe up "Oi! She's a cats mother!" Mum used it to express irritation at being referred to in the tird person, or it was insulting.
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I still think it's slightly rude to refer to someone in the third person if they are present in the room.
 
When I was young there seemed to be a discussion on whether one must put a banana peel in the shoe for a wart or one must rub the wart with a peeled white potato.

Actually people tell me wearing a patch of Duck Tape ( I don’t know if Dick Tape is sold outside the U.S. ) will cure a wart.
 
Floyd1 said:
Speaking of warts; hitting them with a bible will rid you of them.
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Wasn't that ganglions? It didn't work anyway.

Wart-removal was done with more magical methods. :wink2:

I used to buy warts and verrucas off my own kids for 50p a shot. Now, that did work.
 
Min Bannister said:
It sounds plausible to me. I had a wart on my thumb when I was a teenager and one day I accidentally banged it on a wooden log. It was incredibly painful but the wart turned black and fell off. So it wouldn't have to be a bible. You just have to hit it hard enough.
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What happens if you have a wart on your nose?
 
charliebrown said:
When I was young there seemed to be a discussion on whether one must put a banana peel in the shoe for a wart or one must rub the wart with a peeled white potato.

Actually people tell me wearing a patch of Duck Tape ( I don’t know if Dick Tape is sold outside the U.S. ) will cure a wart.
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Duck Tape? Dick Tape? :chuckle:

Reminds me of a young bloke I knew who had so much enthusiastic sex with a new girlfriend he rubbed himself raw.
As this was uncomfortable next day he resorted to sticking a plaster over the damage.
A colleague saw it and joked that Bloke must have picked up a Dose.

Bloke niavely believed him. The relationship didn't last. :(
 
How about the one that if a woman was having troubles getting pregnant, she should sit in the chair of a pregnant woman, and / or hold a baby for some time -
I'm thinking that holding a baby might prompt the egg-producing hormones?
I heard that many times growing up, don't know if it worked for anyone.
 
charliebrown said:
When I was young there seemed to be a discussion on whether one must put a banana peel in the shoe for a wart or one must rub the wart with a peeled white potato.

Actually people tell me wearing a patch of Duck Tape ( I don’t know if Dick Tape is sold outside the U.S. ) will cure a wart.
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Do you mean Duct Tape?
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
How about the one that if a woman was having troubles getting pregnant, she should sit in the chair of a pregnant woman, and / or hold a baby for some time -
I'm thinking that holding a baby might prompt the egg-producing hormones?
I heard that many times growing up, don't know if it worked for anyone.
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There were stories of certain seats at supermarket checkouts or offices where women who sat there got pregnant. Haven't seen many such stories for a while though.
 
catseye said:
It was gin. A hot bath and gin would, allegedly, bring on miscarriage. This was a very popular misconception when I was growing up (and even fairly well into my twenties). I know there is subsequent research which shows that, if a woman runs a very high temperature in early pregnancy there is a risk of miscarriage (although this may well be due to whatever illness caused the temperature, rather than the temperature itself) so this may play into it. Also the likelihood of the gin and hot bath causing a woman to faint, possibly injuring herself on the way down in such a way that may cause miscarriage.

If it were that easy to cause the loss of a baby, there would be no unwanted pregnancies. But it really, really isn't.
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When I was a little girl, there were older women in the neighborhood who were suddenly said to be having 'change of life babies', not all of whom were wanted. And the rumor was to sit in a 'hot mustard bath' to instigate a miscarriage.
I remember one woman who tried it, and then suddenly miscarried at five months, so not sure if that was the reason, I didn't get the whole story.
 
Hope this isn't crossing the line here but, I recall newlywed women scrambling to try the latest advice:
After sex, stand on your head in the corner for 20 minutes, to get everything going in the proper direction. :)
 
Zeke Newbold said:
So I am at the age - and I suspect many of us on here are -where the elder generation of family and friends, that we know, are dying off or well into decrepitude.

That whole generation - let's say war babies and early Boomers - are already a startin g to look like the remnant of the vanished Kingdom of Lemuria - with its `counterpanes`, `latchkeys` and `good day's` and so on.

And they came out with some odd edicts and recommendations which they didn;'t bother to expplain at the time and have which have left us puzzled ever since. Here are two of mine:

1) Don't eat an egg everyday.

So why shouldn't we? Is it just that eggs are fattening? If so - why specify eggs and not other fatty foods? What susbstance do eggs contain that is harmful if eaten too regularly? It just so happens that I'm living in an area where decent ceral is hard to find - so I have defaulted onto eggs as my breakfast food. A fried egg on bread is nutrtitious and quick to make and I do it almost everyday. So far I have not noticed any illeffects - not even excessive weight gain. So, what was all that about.

2) Never refer to a woman who is present by a pronoun. (incorporating: `She is the cat's mother`).

So according to this one, if you are in a group and chatting with them and, let's say, there is a woman (specifically a woman) called Bernadette. If you want to refer to something she says or thinks to the others you have to say: `Bernadette thinks` or Bernadette says` and never use the pronoun `she` This was a matter of ettiqette - with the implication that those that broke with it it were churlish.

And if you did say `She` then the chancers were that some pompous old biddy esteemed family member would pipe up with: `She is the cat's mother`. This was meant to be a withering put down.

To this day I have no idea why (a) it's rude to use a pronoun to describe a woman who is present and (b) what `She is the cat's mother` is supposed to mean. (Sure - I could Google it - but it's more fun messing with the heads of you guys with it).

So that's me: a cad who's going to die too young because I ate eggs everyday. If only I had listened to my elders!
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What country do you live in? I never heard of either of those sayings.

My grandpa used to say "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"

Something my mother used to say, which I think is very wise, is "Never talk about politics or religion with someone you don't know."

I think there were phrases that were used but I can't remember any now. I will come back to this.
 
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