Words that Echo from My Childhood
Using "echo" in the title is probably a misnomer because an echo tends to fade in time. These echoes from my childhood still occasionally resonate loudly in my mind and are clearer than ever.
The following are echoes of repeated admonitions or suggestions my parents frequently directed to my four sisters and me. When these echoes pass through my mind in my adult life, I frequently marvel at the implicit wisdom that my parents offered and my youthful inability (or rebellious refusal) to recognize or heed their often wise advice.
Here is a partial list of contributions from our parents as my sisters and I recall:
From my mother:
—Don't go visiting with one arm as long as the other. (deciphered: carry a gift)
—There is no fool like an old fool.
—Remember, you have to cool down in the same skin that you heated up in.
—Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you what you are.
—To hell with poverty, put another herring on the fire.
—Always have two ties to your bow. If one doesn't work, to the other you go.
—There are many fish in the ocean. (When a youthful romance ended)
—There's not enough room here to change your mind.
—I have a clean mind because I change it so often.
—There may be snow on the roof, but there's still fire in the furnace
—He will never part gray hair.
—There's many a slip between cup and lip.
—if you are happy, you better tell your face.
—Err in haste, repent at leisure.
—Waste not, want not.
—A new broom sweeps clean.
—A penny saved is a penny earned.
—(In a restaurant) Don't order from the right (side of the menu).
—A bird in hand is worth two in the bush
—A job worth doing is worth doing well.
—A stitch in time saves nine.
From my father:
—Written in my 8th-grade graduation book (June, 1951)
”Always be careful of the words you speak
Make them soft and sweet
For you never know from week to week
Which ones you will have to eat."
—Don't pee on the third rail. (Of course, I now take this literally and figuratively).
—Your word is your bond.
—You can tell what a person is like in the little things he does.
—Be sure to see the person you will marry under different lights.
—All that glitters is not gold.
—A fool and his money are soon parted.
It would be fun and possibly instructive to hear contributions from others about echoes of wise words from their childhood that they still hear.
