The Minnesota Farm Woman

If you don’t give a pregnant woman everything she craves, you will get a sty in your eye! Old Wives’ Tale

We all know that tale had to come from a really hungry pregnant woman who sent her beleaguered hubby to the grocery store at midnight for pickles and ice cream.  I suffered enough heartburn during my pregnancy that all the grannies in Kentucky guaranteed a baby with a  headful of hair but instead had the cutest little bald baby girl ever.   Old wives’ tales are simply superstitions about everyday living from pregnancy  to death and everything in between.  Did you know if you die on Good Friday you will go directly to heaven?  Do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200.00.  Here’s another one that could be of help to you in the upcoming weeks:  If you make a wish when you see the first robin of spring, your wish will come true unless the robin flies away before you’re done wishing.  Just in case there is even a smidgen of truth in this one, please wish very quickly for no more snow when you see that robin out your window.  Speaking of snow, I learned during my research that if a squirrel hides a lot of nuts it is going to be a long winter and if he hides them up in a high place there will be a lot of snow that year. Who would have guessed that the number of snowstorms in a winter is the same as the number of fogs in August?  I don’t know who thought of that one, but certainly not someone who lived in foggy boggy northern Minnesota, because if it were true, we would never dig out.  Since I am both old and a wife, I feel qualified to add a few tales of my own:  1) If your house spotlessly clean, nobody will ever see it.  If you leave your floors unmopped, have dirty dishes in the sink and are still wearing your sweat pants at noon, you will be sure to have company. 2) If you gather your eggs in your jacket pockets because you forgot your bucket, you will have more laundry than usual that day. 3) If you wish for the country life at every stop light in the city and make no illegal U turns for a year, you will end up in a place where the squirrels hide a lot of  nuts high in the treetops every single year.  Go ahead and try that one, because it worked for me. While you’re at it, give the pregnant woman whatever she wants. You don’t want to take any chances on that one.