Myths my Mother told me

‘It’s all going too well,’ said the OH as we drove over to Angouleme, ‘something is bound to go wrong’. Usually an optimist, I was surprised that he was not sticking to the usual motto, luck is just the convergence of planning and opportunity. I automatically raised my hand in salute as a solitary magpie flew in front of the car. I had been brought up to believe a rigmarole of crows prophesising doom, black cats, saluting magpies, broken mirrors and no new shoes on the table. It is a daily battle with common sense, matched only by my struggle with ‘saving it for best’, which I am sure stems from the same superstitious nonsense. In my logical mind I know that it’s ridiculous, after all, if a single magpie signifies bad luck – how does that work then?

New shoes on the table...

 

My Mother always believed that the family was somehow cursed with bad luck and that something would always go wrong, whatever we tried to do. Any misfortune would be explained by ‘the luck of the Prescotts’, luck equating here with bad luck. I hope that after fifty years of this I’ve pretty much conquered it, except saluting the magpies of course, oh and new shoes on the table. It got me musing about some of the other myths I was brought up with that have been subsequently exposed. For years I never ate shelled fish, in fact, I rarely touched fish at all unless it was deep fried in batter. I had been led to believe that I’d inherited the family allergy to seafood and that there would be dire consequences if I ate a prawn curry or crab salad. Once I’d tried moules frites and lived to tell the tale I began to realise that this may be yet another of the family myths. Choux pastry was another allergy no-go area; how many profiteroles had I sacrificed? Now they are my first choice of the dessert menu.

The allergy myths even included clothing. For years I have never worn wool, because apparently as a child I was found to have inherited the family wool allergy. One thing that doesn’t really matter, you might think, with technical clothing. But, merino wool is very popular for baselayer clothing, as the wool from this special breed of sheep is said to be nature’s finest technical fabric, with a wicking, temperature control ability and soft warm feel. I’d ruled it out in my technical wardrobe plans. Last year one of my Aunts gave me an Icelandic wool jumper (think, Sarah Lund: The Killing). She’d never worn it (too itchy, must be the family allergy) and was on the verge of sending it to the clothing bank. I accepted it, as I’d been coveting a genuine Faroe Islands jumper, but could not justify the €200+ price tag, especially as I wouldn’t be able to wear it due to the family allergy…

I knew that we were in for a long, cold day in Angouleme, as we had to exchange the car we had sold and collect the camping car, going through a handover process that we’d been assured would take at least an hour and half. So, I decided to wear my Rohan lined trousers and the ‘Sarah Lund’ jumper. There was no doubt that the jumper was warm, very warm, but the surprising thing was – no sign of any allergy! No itching, no rash; another family myth dispelled. I’ve now added a Rohan Merino baselayer long sleeve t-shirt in black to my list of replacements for this year, if the magpies are willing of course.