Old Wives’ Tales I never put a hat on the bed. I hold my breathe when I pass a cemetery. When I see a nun in a habit, I pull on my buttons. I never walk under open ladders. I bring the cup to the kettle, never the kettle to the cup. I never open…
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Old Wives’ Tales
Prompted By Superstitions
/ Stories
Old Wives’ Tales I never put a hat on the bed. I hold my breathe when I pass a cemetery. When I see a nun in a habit, I pull on my buttons. I never walk under open ladders. I bring the cup to the kettle, never the kettle to the cup. I never open…
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Bad Moon Rising
Prompted By Superstitions
/ Stories
Beliefs about women’s health and the moon are particularly strong.
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A Humorous Peek At Superstition
Prompted By Superstitions
/ Stories
“Don’t Walk Under That Ladder” Alright, ladies and gents, gather ’round. Today’s dissertation is on the peculiar phenomenon of superstition. You know, those little habits that make grown adults clutch a rabbit’s foot like it’s the winning lottery ticket, or avoid black cats like they’re Harvey Weinstein at a kindergarten graduation. Now, as a…
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The Chair in the Courtyard
Prompted By Superstitions
/ Stories
The Chair in the Courtyard When I met my friend Rose she’d been a window for several years. She spoke lovingly about her late husband Bob and I soon learned he’d been her second husband. One day over lunch Rose and I were reminiscing about our past lives and she told me this story. She’d…
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I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover
Prompted By Superstitions
/ Stories
Superstitious? Who me? No way!
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Selling Pop-Its at Macys
Prompted By Shopping: Then and Now
/ Stories
Macy’s Parkchester, circa 1960 Selling Pop-Its at Macys Like any red-blooded American girl when I was young I did my share of shopping. Of course it was a simpler and more personal affair then – no Amazon Prime or online shopping. Instead we went shopping with our mothers or our girl friends who…
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A Glass Menagerie from the Five and Dime
Prompted By Shopping: Then and Now
/ Stories
A Glass Menagerie from The Five and Dime When I was a kid there were two stores In my Bronx neighborhood we called the “five-and-dimes”. One was Woolworth which of course was a national chain, and the other was Fishers which I think was just a local store. Yet to my child’s sensibility they were…
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How it Was and Is
Prompted By Shopping: Then and Now
/ Stories
Maybe my mother did not have the shopping gene or never shook off the Depression and Protestant ethos, but she seems to have passed that shopping ambivalence on to me.
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The Mall Is Dead – Long Live The Mall
Prompted By Shopping: Then and Now
/ Stories
From Department Store Detours to Deliveries at My Door Hey there, comedy connoisseurs! Here I am here, fresh off a bargain hunt that left me with more questions than discounts. We all know the struggle is real when that cashier asks, “Paper or plastic?” But let me tell you, folks, things weren’t always this “eco-friendly…
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You know this quote.