Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 05:19 AM

"soldiers were cool and their officers intelligent"

Don't know about that, but my mother told me to have nothing to do with RAF men because they would love you and leave you. If only ... (took years to get rid of him).

As for the radiators and chilblains, I have found this to be true.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 07:24 AM

radiators and chilblains
I think there is good evidence for that, but radiators have to be hot.
Not that I heard this but it was an urban legend that: if you put your feet in a po it would help with chilblains. I think it did depend on there being contents and what those contents were!
You used to be able to get a tin of chilblain ointment, it had the look & consistency of soft beeswax and a different smell. Don't remember it working that well.
To keep feet warm in the cold snow (and presumably ward off chilblains) we were told stamp our feet as we walked. That seemed to work on the warming front, can't remember doing those kind of analyses on chilblains - I was only 6/7 at the time.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 07:28 AM

You should have listened to your Mother Topsie, you were warned!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 01:35 PM

My mother warned me to "Beware of those little Blodwyns"....?????

when I told her there were quite a few South Welsh Valley Girls on my degree and in Halls of Residence.

did I listen..???

Over 30 years later I'm still with the first one that enticed & claimed me...

I think I've had plenty enough time to experience what mother was implying..... 😜

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 06:17 PM

Raggytash, although my mother's warning was sound, the reason she gave was completely wrong.

As for chilblains, I believe it is to do with the circulation, which is why stamping might help. We used to get chilblains on our feet when we had to stand in the cold and wet, waiting for the bus to school.
An old woman who lived in a crumbling cottage in the woods told us that we should treat chilblains with wall penny-wort. We dutifully collected the plant and rubbed our toes with it. The effect was probably achieved by the massage involved in rubbing our toes with the plant, more than by the plant extracts themselves.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 06:34 PM

Wall pennywort is a cure for piles. Just rub the leaves on your sore bum. It's also an edible plant. My personal recommendation, as a botany graduate, is that you use different batches of wall pennywort for these two purposes. I'd also suggest that you should wash your hands between the two operations, though you probably won't die if you don't.

[As I don't want anyone to be poisoned, the wall pennywort I'm talking about is Umbilicus rupestris.]

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: JHW
Date: 20 Nov 15 - 04:23 PM

'if you didn't take your Christmas decorations down on 6th Jan' they would turn into Goblins - though i found out later only applies to greenery decorations
And of course if you firstfoot yourself you will have a year's bad luck.
Most New Year's at this address I have firstfooted myself but whether I've had a year's bad luck is hard to quantify

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: GUEST,Montreal88
Date: 22 Nov 15 - 10:49 PM

Don't go under that bridge - trolls live there.
Horseradish is made by grinding up a horse's ears.
Don't go swimming until two hours after eating.
I broke a mirror when I was 6 years old - I still remember the day seven years later - I was so relieved!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Nov 15 - 09:35 AM

if you firstfoot yourself *** I have firstfooted myself ***

??????????

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Nov 15 - 09:42 AM

Sounds like an interesting variant on an old denunciatory interjection, innit —

"Oh go and firstfoot yourself!"

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 23 Nov 15 - 07:00 PM

Penny S: My experience of girls trying to faint was at junior school, where we didn't have P.E. Maybe they just wanted to be sent home - can't say I blame them for that.
Pig's can't swim, as they would slit their throats with their trotters. Aparently this isn't true.
My mother and her sisters were told by her mother or her great aunt on 1st Jan, that if they went out for a walk, they would meet a man with as many noses as there were days in the year. It was a few years before they cottoned on to the fact that, as it was the first day of the year, there was at that stage only one day...
JK

Subject: RE: Folklore: Rumours you believed as a child
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Nov 15 - 09:14 PM

My gran, who died in1979, always used to say to us scruffy lads, "Pull yer socks up, yer nose is bleeding!" Never did get me head round that one!