# Odd things your elderly relatives were concerned with that caused you embarassment or confusion **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 21, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213 "2014-11-21T00:17:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/101 "2014-11-24T12:52:10Z")
> [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](#): > > I remember hearing that Car Talk segment, and yes, they essentially did say not to turn the AC on and off at driving speed. I remember it because I was so startled at how wrong they were. > [@beowulff](#): > > OK then, find it. > > How about [this](http://www.cartalk.com/content/time-old-onoff-air-conditioning-debacle). > Or [this](http://www.cartalk.com/content/more-air-conditioning-myths). > Or [this](http://www.cartalk.com/content/its-bad-idea-run-your-air-conditioner-when-youre-driving-faster-50-mph-fact-or-myth). I gotta go with beowulff on this one. I was/am a fairly consistent listener to CT and have head them answer this question a couple of times. Consistently saying it does no harm at all. Maybe there was some extenuating circumstance in the version you heard? Although I can’t imagine what it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/102 "2014-11-24T14:19:42Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > I gotta go with beowulff on this one. I was/am a fairly consistent listener to CT and have head them answer this question a couple of times. Consistently saying it does no harm at all. > > Maybe there was some extenuating circumstance in the version you heard? Although I can’t imagine what it would be. I’ve heard them answer it correctly too, but on this show Ray kind of rambled around verbally, and then said maybe not such a good idea to turn on and off. Can’t find it because there is no index to shows, but I remember it because it was such a wrong answer. It made me wonder how much they really knew, and how much they depended on staff writers. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/103 "2014-11-24T14:42:41Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > My dad thinks that you’ll start a fire if you repeatedly flick the lightswitch on and off. > > When I was in 6th grade, our school got new windows. Our teacher wouldn’t let us go near them to look outside because she seriously was afraid they’d fall out of the frame and hit us. No, I’m not kidding. To be fair, one assumes they were installed by the lowest bidder. Maybe she knew something you didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/104 "2014-11-24T16:52:09Z")
One time when I was about 12 my cousin (grandparent’s favourite) was visiting and we were at my mom’s house. There was a storm brewing and my grandma phoned to tell my cousin to take out her large earrings in case lightning struck them. (I wore bigger earrings than my cousin, but hey.) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/105 "2014-11-24T17:27:08Z")
So if those who say you oughtn’t to turn car A/C on at driving speeds, then what was one supposedly to do? Pull off the freeway so you could turn on your A/C? It still sounds silly to me, forty years after my dad said this. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/106 "2014-11-24T19:12:20Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/weddings/newlywed/secret.asp) :eek: Wow! Now I don’t trust my own memory. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/107 "2014-11-24T22:12:49Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > I’m confused here- if the lightning jumps through an open window, crosses the room, and shoots out the other window, what’s the problem? . . . She did not specify. I assumed that a person could be standing in between the windows and get hit, or that people or things could be injured or damaged by the near proximity as it shot through. But I was a kid who’d read every bit of pop science I could get my hands on and my mind was stuck between “that can’t be right” and “if I question this it might be rude.” It’s been too late to ask for specifics for awhile, now. This thread has reminded me that my other grandmother had a few irritating beliefs, but I never heard them directly. These were things that she admonished my dad about when he was a child and about which he complained later. Some of them were things that her father had said and a lot of them were things that ‘everyone knows’, meaning that her sisters would be backing her up. The saying from her father that Dad hated most was “laugh before breakfast, cry before supper.” Dad thought it was both stupid and mean spirited. Grandma and her sisters were certain that cracking your knuckles would cause your finger joints to swell. So he started cracking the knuckles on one hand only. I don’t know whether he told them he was doing it, or told them when he figured he had a result, but by the time he was in his thirties, he was pleased to have disproven them. ---
**Author:** ![qualityleashdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9f8e36/32.png) [@qualityleashdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qualityleashdog)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/108 "2014-11-24T23:07:46Z")
My grandmother always warned me that you didn’t wash dishes or take a shower while it was raining, since lightning could run in on you through the pipes. She also warned me about men wearing bathrobes around the house, since such a practice would inevitably lead to you becoming a homosexual with AIDS. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/109 "2014-11-25T16:25:34Z")
I found out a few years ago that all my elderly aunts seriously thought women have one fewer rib than men do. Like, you know, on one side. Because of Adam. (Or that the Adam’s rib story was a just so story to explain it, I dunno.) My grandparents were also horrified at the idea of talking on the phone during a thunder storm. My father swore up and down that I’d be arrested for driving barefoot, although to me it always seemed much safer than driving in platform heels. If I don’t feel comfortable driving in a particular pair of shoes I take them off. My dad believed, until I informed him differently, that black women have an extra bone in the butt. No really. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/110 "2014-11-25T16:56:14Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > My grandparents were also horrified at the idea of talking on the phone during a thunder storm. And rightly so! Remember, you young whippersnappers, that phones used to be all of the wired variety. Lightning can hit the phone lines and go right through you, even from miles away. Obviously, this does not apply to cell phones or cordless phones. Now, if they thought that carrying a toothpick would protect them while talking on the phone (which I have heard) then they’re wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/111 "2014-11-25T16:57:54Z")
> [@qualityleashdog](#): > > My grandmother always warned me that you didn’t wash dishes or take a shower while it was raining, since lightning could run in on you through the pipes. > > She also warned me about men wearing bathrobes around the house, since such a practice would inevitably lead to you becoming a homosexual with AIDS. The first one is true. Why would you think it wasn’t possible? The second, of course is not. Everyone knows you can’t get AIDS from a bathrobe! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/112 "2014-11-25T17:42:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And rightly so! Remember, you young whippersnappers, that phones used to be all of the wired variety. Lightning can hit the phone lines and go right through you, even from miles away. > > Obviously, this does not apply to cell phones or cordless phones. > > Now, if they thought that carrying a toothpick would protect them while talking on the phone (which I have heard) then they’re wrong. Didn’t the Mythbusters disprove that phone and lightning thing though? (And I’m not that young, these were wired phones. When I was very little they were rotary too!) Duh. You have to get your AIDS from a smoking jacket. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/113 "2014-11-25T18:52:28Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And rightly so! Remember, you young whippersnappers, that phones used to be all of the wired variety. Lightning can hit the phone lines and go right through you, even from miles away. When the wired phone lines were installed in our house (1954), they also installed a large “lightning arrestor”, a big fuse-like thing where the line entered the house. It’s still there. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/114 "2014-11-25T19:11:10Z")
My mother believed that if it was in print,it was the truth. This included National Inquirer,because “It was the law” TV wrestling was real! She didn’t need to tell the Dr what was wrong,he could tell just by her sitting in his office. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/115 "2014-11-25T19:41:29Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > TV wrestling was real! My father acknowledged when I was little that wrestling was fake these days, but insisted that the then WWWF had been legit in the '50s and '60s and they only started faking it sometime around the early '80s. I’m not quite sure how he wrapped his head around the fact that Gorilla Monsoon went from being a mute Manchurian cannibal in the '60s to confidently talking about Hulk Hogan’s external occipital protuberance in the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/116 "2014-11-25T19:43:31Z")
My mother-in-law has always-on cable internet, but dutifully unplugs her cable modem when she’s not using it. Just turning off the computer is not enough, the modem has to be unplugged, too. Her mental model is still “telephone”, where you need to hang up when you’re done or you’re holding the line open. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/117 "2014-11-25T21:57:06Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > \ black women have an extra bone in the butt. No really…\ Why, why, why would you throw out such a straight line, and me be too gentlemanly to give it the punch-line it so richly deserves?!!? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![qualityleashdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9f8e36/32.png) [@qualityleashdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qualityleashdog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/118 "2014-11-25T22:00:50Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The first one is true. Why would you think it wasn’t possible? > > The second, of course is not. Everyone knows you can’t get AIDS from a bathrobe! I did believe the bit about the lightning and plumbing, it made sense and still does, but have always placed the odds at about .000001% that it would happen, so I never considered the odds so bad as to inconvenience myself. This was the late 80s when I was given the bathrobe warning, and even though I was quickly scared off the bathrobes, I have noticed many gay men I know that have been in bathrobes in the middle of the day when I go to their house. They don’t have AIDS, but now I wonder how and why my grandmother had so many opinions about gay men. I may be gay, but thanks to my grandmother, at least I’m not answering the door wearing a bathrobe. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/119 "2014-11-25T22:08:35Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > My beloved step mother spent years, with all possible sincerity, trying to convince people that cows grew magnets in their stomachs. She believed this was true because her father (a butcher) once teased her by telling her it’s where magnets come from. > > I guess back in the day, magnets were used to attract stray barbed wire cattle might ingest while browsing their pastures. (How they got the cows to swallow the magnets, I have no idea.) When the animals were slaughtered, the magnets were retrieved. [“Hardware disease”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_disease) is quite real and is forestalled by inserting a magnet into cows’ digestive tracts at an early age. A butcher would find quite a few of them inside slaughtered cows. As to how to get a cow to swallow a magnet, I leave it to your imagination. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213/120 "2014-11-26T22:46:09Z")
Maybe it doesn’t qualify, but there was the time I got into an argument with Mom about Iggy Pop’s song “Lust for Life.” I had some difficulty convincing her it was not about a cruise ship. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-things-your-elderly-relatives-were-concerned-with-that-caused-you-embarassment-or-confusion/705213.md?page=7)