When I was a kid, uncle Steven told me that if I kept leaving my mouth hanging open, it would freeze like that. Now that I'm an adult and know a little bit more of my uncle's sense of humor, I can see that the joke was probably as much about the silliness of those kinds of false truisms that get passed on from generation to generation despite themselves than any kind of laugh at my expense. But what's also funny is how what he said stayed with me. How I chewed on that idea for years. Really? My mouth can freeze that way? (Cole's mouth is pretty much open during all of his waking hours, so I can't wait to try this out on him.)
But this got me thinking about these kinds of moments. Where people say something that sticks with you, and maybe even makes a life change for you going forward. For instance, another thing that I remember uncle Steven telling me was that I shouldn't put salt on my fries. When I asked why he said that salt served no real purpose in the body and that it just collected water and weight. This made sense to me and I stopped salting my food from that moment on. True story.
Does anybody else have a story along these lines they'd like to share?
6 comments:
I can make my eyes dance. It is a wierd thing that people used to ask me to do. Mom told me to stop because THEY would freeze that way.
So I would try and not do it when people asked, but would find myself taking ONE MORE CHANCE...
Come to think of it, mom told me a lot of weird things. She told me not to rest my head on my hands because it would stretch the skin of my face (which I still practice not doing), she told me I needed to stretch my top lip so my gums wouldn't show when I smiled, and she showed me exercises to do on my neck because I have a weak chin.
I started putting moisterizer/sunblok on my neck because she noticed one of my aunts had taken care of her face but not her neck and now her neck was wrinkled....
When I came home from college with my freshman 15, mom would only let me eat green beans and salad that summer....I would come home for lunch, from work, and she would have a bowl of green beans and a salad waiting for me...ha!
She was ruthless in giving us beauty advice. Now that you can wear stripes and polka dots together I still struggle....but in her defense, she made me think I had the best eyebrows ever created, and she always wishes she could do her hair like mine.
Uh...Steven...nice to hear of your impact on my son.
First, I don't remember ever saying any of those things. But then my memory is suspect so who knows. I do think the salt comment was possible given I never salt anything additionally. That said, I am glad you listened to me somewhere along the line. Except for when I told you how to spell my name--it's Stephen not Steven. Lastly, per your question, Dad used to ask me if I feel any more like I do now than I did a little while ago and it's disturbed me my entire adult life. I can't answer it.
Ha ha ha. I have another friend Steve who demands to be referred to by his full first name and spells it Steven. I've been called out a few times for spelling it Stephen in emails to him. I guess I got tripped up.
Man, you're really sensitive about this name stuff. I can recommend a name therapist.
Please do Daniel, he even tells me to call him Stephen, I told him when I met him he was Steve so he is Steve to me! I do call him Stephen when Im mad at him. As for salt he tells me that all the time... I love pepper and he tries to say the same thing.
I can think of things that have been said that made me realize how uncouth or insensitive some of the sayings were that I grew up with. Example: Jew them down. One lady who was Jewish said "We prefer to call it bartering." Ignorance is not bliss.
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