We grew up with:
- Don't cross your eyes or they will get stuck that way.
- Don't step on a crack or you will break your mother's back [my mom didn't need any more problems].
- Keep your knees together--we always wore dresses--and, not bad advice at any age!
- Little pictures have big ears.
- Children should be seen and not heard.
- Using the word "hate" is a sin.
- Saying "gee" was an abbreviation for Jesus, and a sin.
- Same for "golly" or "gol."
- Grandma said "pshaw" instead of words she couldn't even imagine.
- Mind your manners.
- Don't speak unless spoken to--didn't they know that you don't end a sentence with a preposition. Sometimes it is just necessary 'cause it takes too long to reword the sentence.
And then, there were the longer cautionary tales:
When Aunt MK was a little girl she had a new tricycle and begged and begged to go out after dinner to ride it. Finally grandma gave in and away MK went, only to take a spill and knock out her two front [permanent] teeth. The moral to this story was, "Don't beg after being told 'no' or bad things will surely happen.
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