Childhood superstitions

On a rerun of "Scrubs" the other night, the nurse says her boyfriend thinks she won't sit on toilet seats because of germs, but she won't let him know it's really because she's afraid of toilet snakes.

I had to laugh because I won't sit on a toilet in the dark because of a toilet snake story I was told as a child.

Does anyone else find that they have silly behavior patterns today that stem from childhood superstitions?

When I was really young, my grandpa told me not to look at garden weeds too long, or it would burn my eyes out! so I should pull them up and toss them immediately!

To this day, when I'm out pulling weeds, I hardly give 'em a glance... just pull and get it all done as quick as possible!

My grandparent's yard never had weeds after a visit from the grandkids.... and I still have my eyes..... wait a minute..... HEY!!

[ Edited by: Traderpup on 2003-08-02 10:50 ]

I don't still believe this today, but when I was little, my brother and I were riding our tricycles down the street, and a guy in a convertible drove by and gave us the "OK" sign - thumb and forefinger make a circle and the other fingers stick up. I asked my brother what this sign meant, and he told me it meant that the guy was going to come back later and kill me.

I'm lucky I haven't needed therapy for that.

http://www.iusedtobelieve.com/

this is a great site about childhood beliefs...

I had a friend who used to let their pet Python just roam around the house, it often would coil up in the toilet, I'm with you on the toilet snake story, better safe than sorry!

when i was wee i couldn't stand having a chink in my curtins, the curtins would have to be open fully or completly closed, because if they were open a gap I knew that this man with a water-buffalo head would peer through the gap and look at me.
And before you all think hey thats some repressed peeping tom memory, my bedroom was on the second floor.

I once left the tooth fairy a note that my price had increased from $1.00 to five due to my "high cost of living". She didn't buy it. The Evel Knievel Skull Canyon set had to wait.

I'm over all his now...

Creature: A "giant purple hippie". I was sure he looked in the small frosted window of the bathroom.

Creatures: Weird animation. The animated peoples on the PBS show "Vegetable Soup", or some of the charatcters encountered in "The Point". There was a lot of this spacey stuff around in the early 70's. I knew they could tell if I was freaked out by them and would be angered into revenge. So I'd watch the shows and pretend to enjoy the frightening cartoons.

General Weirdness: Poison being slipped into the tap water just before my glass was full. I'd tip the last bit of water out of the glass before drinking it.

I was aware that all evil space aliens and supernatural creatures hated music. Whenever alone in scary places I whistled, sang, or hummed.

My parents once had quite an experience with a toilet snake. Mom got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and saw a long snake with a pointy tongue coiled up behind the toilet.

She woke up Dad. He agreed that it was probably poisonous because it had a pointy tongue, and was probably getting ready to strike since its tongue was sticking out.

Dad tried to beat it to death with a baseball bat, but he couldn't get a good whack at it behind the toilet. Mom decided to go find their glasses so they could see where it went if it got away. After she put on her glasses she realized that it was just a leather belt someone dropped on the floor. and the pointy tongue was part of the buckle.

They went back to bed feeling rather senile.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
That was a nose-milk shooter!

Good to know I'm not alone in my toilet snake fears.

I had a friend who had just moved into a new apartment ... before she moved it the place had been painted top to bottom. After she had been living there about a week she decided to move the sofa. She gave it a shove and under it .. voila! ... was a huge boa constrictor. Apparently, the people who had lived here before had lost their snake several weeks back and then moved without telling anyone. No one had seen it the whole time the place was being painted ... even with every cupboard and closet open.

Where was he all that time? It can only be surmised ... the plumbing. He must have come up out of the toilet when she wasn't home or sleeping.

When I was little, my mom forbade me to go outside with bare feet. She said that worms would crawl in and start to grow in my feet! In actuality, she was right - I grew up in tropical Louisiana and worm eggs and larvae (or other nasties) could cross the skin barrier through cuts or lesions. But, to this day I am tres leery of walking around barefooted - even in my apartment. I must have a thousand pairs of slippers and socks!

I still don't like to take showers with the lights on. When I was a kid I thought it was way more monkey like to take showers in the dark because obviously the jungle didn't have electricity so real monkeys wouldnt be showering with light on. But for some reason I was o.k with all the other technology that made up our bathroom. Yes folks, I was that serious about being a monkey.
Weird but true facts about
Chongolio.

You think guys can be bad in the bathroom...
I HATE women who don't sit on public toilet seats and don't have the decency to wipe the seat down after they splatter all over it. I don't care how drunk you are.
It's my #1 pet peeve and I am on a National Campaign to humiliate any woman who doesn't clean up after her mess! Here's my slogan:

"WIPE YOUR WEE AFTER YOU PEE!"

We had the 'hold your breath while you drive past the graveyard' superstition in my family (don't want to inhale a freshly-buried spirit)... Which is why dad would always drive reeeeeeeeeal slow.

Another one that is emblazoned in my memory was me asking my mother what the hood ornament on the family car was... she responded by telling me that it was called a 'sight' and was used to line up the car with people she intended to hit...

Ahhhmemories...

Although not really a superstition, when I would have dreams about monsters, I thought that by befriending them I could escape certain death and turn them on other people in the house.

Hey Boogieman, I am on your side... Its my brother you want. Not me.

Amen, Futura Girl. I'm sure PJ is one of the good ones, though. Besides, public toidies are usually well lit!

[ Edited by: purple jade on 2004-11-14 17:36 ]

Ummm...just so you guys know, PurpleJade had the disgusted look still on her face AFTER she came out of the bathroom. I wasn't actually there as it happened. :lol:

Maybe a few remakes of the old sign usually found at arts & crafts fairs needs to be made by some of the carvers for our tiki bathrooms:

"If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie"

How did this post evolve from childhood superstitions to this?

SugarCaddyDaddy's SoCal Hoity Toity Schedule!

[ Edited by: sugarcaddydaddy on 2003-08-04 23:25 ]

"Our aim is to keep this bathroom clean...your aim will help."

*On 2003-08-04 23:24, SugarCaddyDaddy wrote:*How did this post evolve from childhood superstitions to this?

The first post mentions a superstition of someone not wanting to sit on a toilet.

I too am on a rampage agoainst the seat tinklers.. the motto that I made up was...
"IF EVERYONE SAT DOWN... NO ONE WOULD HAVE TO STAND UP!"

(Because the number one excuse that seat tinklers use for getting their tinkle on the seat is "I didn't want to sit in the tinkle on the seat!")

I wish they would just lift the seat. But then, that would mean they'd have to touch it. I guess that puts us back where we started...

I usually DO lift the seat...with my foot. Not only does that eliminate the possibility of an accidental tinkle-touch, it also lowers the potty height making it easier for tiny types like me to hover over.

And you can also see if a toilet snake is lurking under the rim.

Ta da...back on topic.

P.S. Scigirl~
I NEVER wore shoes as a kid here in N.O. and I never got those hookworms that allegedly migrate to your brain and eat it. I did however kill off a few brain cells whilst wearing shoes later in life.

[ Edited by: purple jade on 2003-08-05 08:31 ]

OMG! This post is hilarious! Not breathing when I went by a cemetary made it really hard for me when I was going through my Goth stage. I think I have overcome that fear, but I still gross out when I see a toilet spattered in pee! God I hate that! Living in house full of men, I have issues with toilet seats. The awnser to every question ever asked is "Babywipes" gotta love 'em.

Well - for what it's worth, here's my brain-eating worm story... Well, thankfully, not MINE, but a story....

The publishing company I work for has an author who does a lot of photojournalism overseas, especially in Asia. She was in Thailand, and was sampling some of the local delicacies (seafood, I think, and not monkey-brain soup ala Indiana Jones). Anyway - a couple of months later, she starts getting these intolerable headaches...

She goes to her stateside doctor, and gets x-rayed. They find that a worm has implanted itself in the base of her skull, and was feeding off of the blood vessels that go to her brain! The worm apparently came from whatever she had eaten in Thailand!

Ughhh... ughhh.. ughhh....

This also reminds me of the old earwig-goes-in-one-ear-and-bores-its-way-to-the-other-side-while-laying-eggs story.... I still get a squeam-attack whenever I see one of those little buggers.

UGHHHHH!!!

Frenchy, you're story reminds me of an Urban Legend that made its way around email a few years ago.

WARNING -- The following story should not be read by anyone who is easily offended, faint of heart, or who has close emotional ties to crustaceans.

I warned you .......

The Miracle of Life

**Poly-Pop ***

[ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2003-08-05 12:06 ]

The Night Gallery with Rod Serling had an episode with Leonard Nimoy about an earwig...scary stuff!

http://www.nightgallery.net/index.html?title.html&0

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-08-05 18:29 ]

Whoo... Man. Glad I'm not a seafood-eater. "Never eat anything that carries its' house around with it," as they say...

"Those who think conventionally will never read my thoughts..." - The Black Lizard

http://www.integraonline.com/~missyvonne/index.html

[ Edited by: Frenchy Polynesia on 2003-08-05 13:08 ]

"tinkle-touch" strikes me as a good insult.
I don't really know how one would use it, but the phrase makes me laugh!

Damnit Pop!
There goes my thought of having an early dinner at Seafood Broiler!

Ugggh! That was one gross story.

How about...
"You make an accidental tinkle-touch seem pleasant"

"I'd sooner a tinkle-touch than shake your hand"

"That guy grosses me out more than a two day old tinkle-touch"

I would rather "tinkle -touch" than have Crustacean crotch :o

Chongolio

Who's up for all-you-can-eat shrimp at Sizzler?

Anyone want sushi?

Maggot Head

Check this one out --

http://66.165.133.65/horrors/insects/wormeye.htm

"While lying in a tub, she gently inserted the creature's tail into her vagina to derive pleasure. At that point, she held a lighter under the creature's face causing it to flip its tail in a violent snapping motion."

I would think that anyone who owns a vagina knows that this would be well nigh impossible. Plus, a waste of good lobster!