Donna Louise here watching to see if March goes out like a lamb or a lion. It’s part of my doctoral thesis in American Studies entitled, The Truth Behind Aged People’s Tales in America. “Old Wives’ Tales” isn’t politically correct in today’s world. I searched for a PC word for “old” and decided on “aged” and then selected the generic term “person” to not be sexist.
How many of the old sayings like “Cut the ends of the ham off so it will cook faster” are true? Is there a Law of Threes that foretells additional deaths when one person dies? How about the belief that you must give a penny when you give a knife as a gift so the recipient can give the penny back to you to keep the relationship from being severed?
I’m sure you all can think of other sayings that come under the classification of “Old Wives’ Tales” even if the people who started them weren’t old or wives.
Mama believed in the Law of Threes which says: If someone you know dies, then two other people you know will die. Variations exist, but that’s the basic law.
Some of my favorites that I’ve collected are:
If you sit under a pine tree on Christmas Eve, the angels will sing to you, but you’ll die soon after. (Probably from the pneumonia you’d contract from sitting on the cold ground waiting for the angels to sing.)
It’s bad luck to see a redhead on New Year’s Day. (I need to find a redhead to ask what he/she does on New Year’s Day. Do they wear hats or wigs to disguise their hair color?)
If the palm of your left hand itches, you’ll receive money. If the itch hits your right hand, you’ll meet someone new.
Break a mirror and you’ll have seven years of bad luck. (That happened to a friend of mine.)
If March comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion (or vice versa). (The first day of this month was cloudy like a gray lamb. The forecast for today says sunny skies and high temperatures. When the day is over I’ll assess the accuracy of that old saying.)
Fat, furrier squirrels mean a harsh winter. (Last year we had the fattest, furriest squirrels I’ve ever seen, but the winter was very mild.)
If you have any “aged person’s tales” please post them as I’m still working on my thesis.
Donna Louise 
Donna Louise, you are so sensitive to offending people. I have a few politically correct words for you. (You probably know them already, but like what my mom used to say, “a stitch in time, saves nine.”)
Personhole cover.
Portuguese Person-of-War
Person-handled.
O. Monkey, thank you for the list. I’ll add the words to my gender-neutral list.
Do people actually stitch anymore? I thought they threw the piece of clothing away if it required repair.
I have never heard that thing about redheads. I’m usually on the couch all New Year’s Day, so perhaps I need to get out more and make sure I visit specific people. And my mother always told us kids to eat our vegetables to grow hair on our chest. No wonder I never liked vegetables as a kid.
janmasterp, I know a redheaded male friend who went to Naples and got beat up by some local ruffians because he had the devil’s hair. I guess there are not a lot of redheads in Naples. Could be there were other reasons, but he never gave any other explanations for the attack.
Since every day in New Age thought is the first day of the rest of your life, you couldn’t believe in the superstition about redheads since we all see at least one every day.
I with you on the vegetables. What little girl would want to have hair on her chest…well, I’m sure there are some, but most probably wouldn’t.