FROM ELDERS - WISDOM AND NON-WISDOM |
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FROM ELDERS - WISDOM AND NON-WISDOM |
SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION - FROM ELDERS: WISDOM AND NON-WISDOM
Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians
(excerpts from Storytell posts plus original research)
Book titles and online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to get more stories and information.
Story titles are in quotation marks.
To retell any stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
Alphabetized for your convenience with short descriptions to save you research time.
Posts are added chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World.
1) My father's advice: Try to avoid making decisions when you're upset or angry.
2) Poopdeck: I've made more money with my butt than my head (referring to waiting out the stock market).
3) Zeke Holoman in the Frontier Saloon: "Beaten paths are for beaten men."
4) My favorite was given to me by my mother before an county wide high school dance that I did NOT want to go to. Mother said, "Go with him. You'll meet lots of other people and dance with lots of other boys too." Marked that day as proof that mother didn't know best! (Only talked and danced with one couple we went with.)
5) My favorite, "Do as I say, not as I do."
6) "A place for everything, and everything in its place" (and if you could see my home, you would know I don't do that one).
7) When I was a older teenager, considering the possibility of giving myself body and soul to my latest flame, I asked my father for advice on the matter. Didn't DARE ask Mom. Dad said, "If you want to romp in the hay, then romp in the hay, but remember: the bed you make, ya gotta sleep in." Sad to say, I remembered the first part of that adage, but didn't remember the last part. Sure wish I'd either had more sense or a better memory back then. Hindsight is the best sight? "Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?"
8) Worst piece of advice? "Children should be seen and not heard."
9) When we (my British-born boyfriend and me) called my mother from his flat in Cambridge, UK and told her that we had decided to get married, she paused for a while and said, "Couldn't you come back to America and date an "American" boy for a little while? Then you could always go back to Owen... I don't want my grandbabies talking funny!!!" We've been happily married 31 months (um, we still celebrate our "lunacies"), and Mom has accepted the grandkitties with good grace. Now *they* talk funny!
10) For worst piece of advice, how about: "When the right one comes along, you'll know."
11) Most elders, following a lifetime of experience, successes, mistakes, heartbreak and happiness, etc. have accumulated a whole dumpster full of wisdom! Problem is we can't remember it!
12) "One size fits all." Hah!
13) Worst piece of advice? "Why would anyone buy the cow when they can get the milk for free?" (Like, who buys a cow before knowing if it will give decent milk or not, hmm?)
14) Since you bring up the subject of cows as somehow related to the non-wisdom of elders, I respectfully suggest it's the non-elders who impose non-wisdom upon their elders- as when their adverstising wonks ask us to buy a computer from a cow, and insurance from a lizard and a duck!
15) "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz
16) My wonderful grandmother (oh how I miss her) always warned me to keep my knees together when watching tv "so those people can't look up your skirt" She also, the first time I took a boy over to my mother's to meet her (I lived with my dad) noticed I had a run in my panty hose and immediately spit on my leg to stop the run. When she was in her mid 80s she started telling dirty jokes, the raunchier the better. We were all so shocked, and have no idea where she learned these things. At family gatherings she did not want to sit with her children, as they were all old fuddy duddies. Instead, she wanted to sit with the grandchildren, they knew how to have fun.
17) Oh, this reminded me of my senior year at the Academy of Notre Dame. One day the girls came screaming out of Sr. Lorita's homeroom. It seems she told them they should receive no more "stimulation" from kissing a boy than from kissing a door knob. Sage advice, true...but I kept getting my tongue caught in the keyhole!
18) Family legend has it: My aunt decided it was time to go beyond the sperm and egg concept and explain to my cousin the far more difficult "how did the sperm get there?" point. At that time, they lived in front of a small dairy. (Gone the way of all small dairy farms, alas.) "Do you know how the cow becomes pregnant with a calf?" Sure, said my cousin, Mr. Mantle takes the packet and moves the the cow's tail and.... "No no," said my aunt, and went into some detail. Light dawned on my cousin. "Oh! I see!" he said. "It's like people!"
19) This brings back memories of my mother's birds and bees exlanation. She did a very good job with a lot of it. But when I asked her, "How does the sperm connect with the egg?" I asked that question 3 or 4 times and her answer was to repeat the birds and bees story she had told me. I finally gave up . . . but of course I eventually figured it out.
20) Dear all, being a good Catholic girl, I remember being taught not to say "abracadabra." That phrase conjured the devil. I'd forgotten all about that. So, I guess I'll stick with "ala-peanut butter sandwich" and disappear for now.
21) I have some stories where I do a magic trick within the story. After I performed one this past Sunday at a Jewish community center in Key Largo (Here's lookin at you kid) a member came up and said, "Did you know abracadabra came from Hebrew? It means it is spoken and created." I couldn't believe it, but there was a Cantor in the audience also and he confirmed this. I then e-mailed my rabbi storyteller friend Fred Davidow, formerly of Atlanta and now of Wilkes Barre, and sure enough, here is what he wrote me back. It is possible that Abracadabra is derived from Aramaic (not Hebrew). One explanation is that it means "it is created as it is spoken." Bara means to create in Aramaic and in Hebrew and Daber means to speak in the same languages. Encyclopedia Judaica says that Abracadabra is possibly the name of a demon. Just in case anyone was interested.
22) My mother had 6 kids before she found out that the stork didn't bring them and none once she found out.
23) We were poor, and getting any kind of clothing that hinted at the fashion was difficult, especially the shoes. So Mom said, "If you smile, folks won't look at your feet." Good advice, except that I had three rows of front teeth! The eyeteeth were coming from the nose area like fangs, the regular two front teeth, and the next two came out of the roof of my mouth! People looking at my smile was not a pleasant concept!
Created 2002; last update 9/4/09
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