Fun, Facts, Fiction, Fairytales
Most of us remember times when we were growing up that we were told things that we thought were true until we became older, things that were shared at home or repeated on the playground. What started me thinking about these stories were the white half moons on my fingernails. It reminded of what I was told as a child that caused them. I believed the little white marks naturally appeared were because of the little white lies I’d told. Sometimes I’d look at my fingernails and wonder what lies I’d told confused as a kid when I couldn’t recall if I told a lie or not.
How about the tale people tell about petals on a daisy? When a girl picks the flower, she is to pluck its white petals one by one from its bright yellow center, chanting “He loves me…He loves me not” until the petals are all gone. When the last petal falls, it will reveal whether or not the person she is thinking about really loves her. I supposed that it would work if a guy removed the petals.
Another repeated tale about a flower is the one about dandelions or buttercups. Someone would pick one of the blooms and hold it just below the chin near the neck to see “if you liked butter.” That was a silly little game that we used to do.
An untruth my mom Sybil Beck shared with us as kids; she would boil water for eggs making hard cooked eggs sandwiches. If she didn’t let them cook long enough and the centers were even slightly runny, she would say that she boiled them too long. The reason…when as a child she fussed if her mom, Rebecca Rugg Miner served an underdone egg she made up the story to get my mom to eat the egg.
That reminds me of another misconception my mother had as a child. She thought cows were the mothers and horses were the fathers. She also thought cats were the mothers and dogs were the fathers. In her mind, because men and women looked different, so should the animals. Later, she used to laugh about it saying, “I grew up on a farm and should have known better.”
So many times as children we are told old wives tales. Each family has their own collection of stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Like coveted recipes, these tales have been shared, laughed at, and loved because they show us that we were once naïve and innocent. They make us human and have created the human beings that we are.