As a black woman who spent the first decade of her life living in poverty in the south, there were a myriad of old wives tales that were a part of our day to day lives. So assessing the truthfulness of old wives tales should come easily for me.
The history of old wives tales has its origins in cultural and economic backgrounds and fear of the unknown. Old wives tales crosses all racial and socio-economic divides and were passed down from generations to generations. It wasn't until those who initially didn't have the access to modern medicine were finally convinced that their way of remedying ailments and such just didn't work anymore, if in fact they ever did.
As a child I can recall hundreds of old wives tales that addressed everything from the soft spot on a newborn baby's head to what a newlywed wife was expected to do on her wedding night. That may be why today I have a soft spot in my heart for the helpless newborn who during those early periods were the ones who fell prey to these sometimes ridiculous cures for some of the most common ailments.
Take for instance the harmless hiccups, which the medical field has agreed is caused by one swallowing too much air during eating, or eating too much food too quickly. So what was the new mother told to do to rid her poor baby of the hiccups? Well she could try breaking off a small length of bristle from a corn broom and stick in the hairs of the baby. This was guaranteed to work.
However if this remedy did not alleviate the problem in a considerable time, the hapless infant was subjected to someone sneaking up on them and yelling the word BOO at the top of their lungs. This often worked right away, because it generally scared the living daylights out of the poor baby and the hiccups took a backseat to the baby's terrifying crying.
As a child on the row where I lived, if you were seen walking or playing about with a string of keys around your neck everyone knew that at some point earlier you obviously had suffered a nosebleed. If a toddler was a late bloomer in taking its first step, then someone was sent to fetch a cricket after which, said cricket was placed upon the child's legs so as to jumpstart his tardy walking ability. This poor child, who I'm sure had never seen a cricket before, may have taken one look at this bug crawling up its leg and probably reacted the way any of us would if we suddenly found a creepy crawly bug making its way up one of our legs. We'll stand up and run like hell as far as we could from this intrusive creature.
One other old wives' tale that encumbered all that ailed any and all children was the ubiquitous dose of Castor Oil. This miracle medicinal concoction was given to children for every ailment ranging from a fever, rubella, polio, the common cold and even a upset stomach caused by eating too many tootsie rolls. All households always held a bottle of Castor Oil at all times for just such emergencies.
We were admonished that we should never whistle when passing a graveyard, or else you'd have unwanted and unnatural company. Always put your left shoe on first. Don't yawn when reciting the Lord's Prayer, or else you'll have nightmares or bad luck. After combing or brushing your hair, make sure you discard of the hair left in the brush because if you throw it away and a bird gets it you'll end up with a stomach ache.
The intended groom should never see the bride until the wedding ceremony starts. The intended bride should sleep with a fork under her pillow the night before the wedding to ensure a long and happy matrimony.
We all know that if you break a mirror you'll have seven years of bad luck. All good and bad luck cycles come in sevens, so after your seven years of bad luck is over, you can expect to have seven years of terrific luck. Also found money is bad luck. Remember what happen to the character John in Stephen King's novel and later the movie Dead Zone? He told his mother he had found a dollar and she said "John, found money is bad luck", and he ended up in a coma, and when he awaked, he had supernatural powers. We were also told to never, ever open an umbrella inside as that is a big taboo, and brings untold bad luck.
Okay, I think you get my feelings about assessing the truthfulness of old wives tales. The daunting task of this is that some of these tales were born of ignorance, some are derived from different cultures and passed down through several generations as I mentioned earlier, and some may have just been completely made up by someone to obviously suit their needs to gain some sort of comeuppance or control over an intended victim that the person wanted to manipulate for whatever purposes they had in mind.
As a child, never at anytime did I disregard any of the old wives tales that were passed on to me to obey and which I did not follow to the letter. Those days are no more, I'm wiser now and I feel that these old wives tales are just baseless superstitions that have absolutely no use for me in today's rapid evolving and technical society. Well that's my take on assessing old wives tales. I have to go now think I may have heard something fall outside my front door. Maybe it was my mezuzah, I'll check.