I grew up in a white, christian, middle class, Republican, tight ass family as well as an extremely white, christian, middle class, Republican, tight assed community. So you can imagine what kind of things I was told, especially growing up in the 60’s;
**“Don’t drink tap water because the hippies might put LSD in the city reservoir and make us all addicts”.
“When you’re on a field trip into the big city (Milwaukee) don’t go into a public rest room because a ‘negro’ might come in and cut your penis off”** Stuff like that.
Having grown up to become somewhat more libertarian than my parents, I’m disapointed that the hippies didn’t put acid in the water. It might have been fun.
Anyway, the most ridiculous UL I heard growing up was that homosexual men would put pieces of bread in the urinals in public bathrooms. Then later on, they would collect the urine soaked bread and take it home and bake it :eek:
Even at age 10 in 1970 this sounded completely absurd. Has anyone else ever heard of this urban legend, and does anyone have any idea where it originated from?
Click here, pick either of the links, then either search for the phrase “Have you heard”, or scroll three quarters of the way down the page. Dan Savage said it better than I could.
I read a joke about this in the National Lampoon in the mid-seventies. I was also about 10 and didn’t believe it for a minute, even after I drank that San Antonio tap water.
As to where it might have come from … well, in my own field (Renaissance studies) I’ve come across a heck of a lot of stories about heretics / witches / what-have-you holding perverse versions of the Christian communion. Many of them involve consuming body fluids in place of, or along with, bread or wine.
Not a definite source, mind you, but food for thought.
