Monday, March 26, 2007
SHARING THE GOOD OLD DAYS.....
I grew up in a family of proverbs. I don’t know if it was just our family or if it was the times. My mother had a way of addressing everything. I was a very active little girl and stayed busy doing something all the time. “Haste makes waste” my mother would say. If I had a scary dream and told her about it before breakfast, there was a quick reply. “Tell a dream before breakfast and it will happen before night.” I never told bad dreams before breakfast after that.
“Don’t walk under a ladder or let a black cat walk across the road in front of you, it’s bad luck, a stitch in time saves nine, cackling hens and giggling girls come to no good end.” “You kids better stop laughing or you’ll end up crying before night.” My mother was very close to her maternal grandmother and most of the superstitions or proverbs came from her. “Blessed are the dead the rain falls on but doomed is the bride, red in the morning shepherds take warning…..red at night is a sailor’s delight,” putting food on your plate when you already had some meant someone was coming hungry.
If a bird flew into a window you would hear of a death, and if one famous person died, two more would die. “They always die in three’s” Mom would say. “Thunder in January, frost in May. It’s hotter than a cat on a tin roof…..never a borrower nor a lender be, too many cooks spoil the broth, may as well eat the devil as sup his broth, they’re acting as wild as a chicken with it’s head cut off.”
I could go on and on but those old “sayings” pop into my head every day as the occasion presents itself. Becky and I laugh over them because anytime we have a conversation one of us will mention a proverb or two and it always makes us think of mom.
We have sworn to keep them alive as long as we can, hoping some of it will trickle down the family chain and be a comfort when needed. I love using the old lines my mother used to say because it makes her seem closer…….and I like that.
What are some of the things you remember about your family that make it unique? If they are pleasant to you, be sure and pass them on.
Just remember: If you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back……………
Until tomorrow, I am,
Essentially Esther
“Don’t walk under a ladder or let a black cat walk across the road in front of you, it’s bad luck, a stitch in time saves nine, cackling hens and giggling girls come to no good end.” “You kids better stop laughing or you’ll end up crying before night.” My mother was very close to her maternal grandmother and most of the superstitions or proverbs came from her. “Blessed are the dead the rain falls on but doomed is the bride, red in the morning shepherds take warning…..red at night is a sailor’s delight,” putting food on your plate when you already had some meant someone was coming hungry.
If a bird flew into a window you would hear of a death, and if one famous person died, two more would die. “They always die in three’s” Mom would say. “Thunder in January, frost in May. It’s hotter than a cat on a tin roof…..never a borrower nor a lender be, too many cooks spoil the broth, may as well eat the devil as sup his broth, they’re acting as wild as a chicken with it’s head cut off.”
I could go on and on but those old “sayings” pop into my head every day as the occasion presents itself. Becky and I laugh over them because anytime we have a conversation one of us will mention a proverb or two and it always makes us think of mom.
We have sworn to keep them alive as long as we can, hoping some of it will trickle down the family chain and be a comfort when needed. I love using the old lines my mother used to say because it makes her seem closer…….and I like that.
What are some of the things you remember about your family that make it unique? If they are pleasant to you, be sure and pass them on.
Just remember: If you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back……………
Until tomorrow, I am,
Essentially Esther
