Families years ago had many superstitions that we don't hear about today. Also they had stories that ended up being called "Old Wives Tales". People believed the stories and acted on them. I remember some of the ones I heard my family talk about as I was growing up. Their superstitions and tales were very serious to them. They would warn people of certain things to watch for and not to do. In the years to come our ancestors will only know what is chosen to include in the history books. I think it is important to include all of the memories of our ancestors, regardless how different or unusual it might seem to us or anyone else. It may be only in pages like this that we will truly start to understand our past. I will list the superstitions and tales that I remember here. If you have any in your family that you do not see here, feel free to email me and I will put them on this page with your name as contributor. I only relate these stories as I heard them and include them to document history in stories.
I guess the one I remember hearing the most was for pregnant women to be careful or they would mark their babies. My grandmother told of someone whose house was on fire while she was pregnant. The woman stood in front of the house, rubbing her hand on top of her head in a nervous gesture. When the baby was born she swears the baby had one strip of red hair as red as fire and the rest of the hair was blond.
My mother insisted that she marked me when she was pregnant. She had gone to a movie where a large moose was chasing someone. She said she was pulling on her left ear and when she realized what she was doing she dropped her hand on her stomach. The next couple of months she feared she had done damaged to her baby. When I was born I had a growth on my ear right where the small section is that covers the opening. She said it was about and inch long. The doctors told her she had to wait until I was at least 30 days old before it could be removed. On my stomach was a brown discoloration birthmark. She insisted it was the exact spot on her own stomach that she had dropped her hand. The birthmark on my ear was removed when I was a month old, with the doctor telling her she had not caused it. However, she told this story many times over to all pregnant women she saw to warn them not to mark their baby.
Another thing I heard during the years I was growing up was not to go outside with my hair wet. Actually it was worded as "Don't go out with a wet head or you'll be dead". My grandmother and mother believed this is how people caught colds.
My mother would panic if she saw anyone eating fish while drinking milk. The family believed this combination was the same as poison. Grandma Stephens, related a story to me about a family that lived down the road from them when she was younger. The family had eaten fish the night before and drank milk with it. Everyone was found dead in their beds the next morning. The drinking milk with fish was not the only combination that they warned of. I was also not allowed to drink milk on the day I ate watermelon. When I started school and explained to them that the schools all served fish on Fridays with small cartons of milk my grandmother and mother warned me to throw mine away if it was served to me. I heard them talking about how the schools were playing a very dangerous game by endangering the children's lives. They actually went as far as calling the school to warn them of the danger.
I love this type of photo because these are the types of things our ancestors saw in
the wild as they embarked on the journey before them settling new lands.
