# When are you allowed to make a wish? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969 "2008-06-23T20:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/21 "2008-06-24T02:55:04Z")
If you drive past a truck loaded with hay. The wish only comes true if you don’t look back. So far, this hasn’t worked for me. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/22 "2008-06-24T03:00:36Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] When you’re driving in a car and a train passes by over you. [/QUOTE] “I wish, I wish, I wish…I hadn’t parked on these train tracks!” ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/23 "2008-06-24T03:04:49Z")
After the knock, but before answering the door after calling an escort service. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/24 "2008-06-24T03:10:47Z")
When you see a white horse and you “stamp” it – like you were licking a stamp and slapping it on a letter held in the palm of your other hand. On long car trips, my sister and I passed the time looking for white horses so we could stamp them and get our wishes. Mom told us about the white horse/stamp thing. I have no idea where she got it from. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Pangloss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Peter\_Pangloss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Pangloss)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/25 "2008-06-24T03:12:18Z")
When you lose a tooth–but your wish will only come true providing you don’t probe the empty spot with your tongue. (This of course is impossible. Damn wishing rules!) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/26 "2008-06-24T05:46:45Z")
[QUOTE=KSO] If you drive past a truck loaded with hay. The wish only comes true if you don’t look back. So far, this hasn’t worked for me. [/QUOTE] Yes! Yes! This one even came with a jingle: Load of hay, load of hay, make a wish and look away ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/27 "2008-06-24T07:53:08Z")
This is VERY silly, but this is my family’s own made up one. When the clock says 11:11, (on a digital clock), because this is the only time combo where all of the numbers on the clock are the same. Ditto for year dates like 7/7/77, 8/8/88 and so on, though that one’s not quite the same since all numbers aren’t alike (in 2/2/2222 they will be though :D). ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/28 "2008-06-24T07:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=Antigen] That’s how we did it as kids, up in Montreal. For the school bus, we could touch a window instead, but with our fingers crossed. We did the digital clock thing too, making a wish at 3:33, 4:44, etc., but we had to touch something blue and we had to be finished saying or thinking the wish before the clock changed. My brother, age 22, just did this today. [/QUOTE] Okay then, we only THOUGHT it was our own silly made up wish. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/29 "2008-06-24T09:05:46Z")
When an ascending/landing plane flies directly over you. Close enough to the ground to cast a shadow. (If the plane is way up in the sky it’s pointless, so you kinda have to live or drive by an airport a lot for this to work.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/30 "2008-06-24T10:56:52Z")
If you can insert all five fingers of one hand into the tubular flowers of a foxglove, without breaking them off the stem. (check first for bees, kids) ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/31 "2008-06-24T12:19:04Z")
Whenever you see a cardinal, if my mother is to be trusted. ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/32 "2008-06-24T12:43:01Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] If you can insert all five fingers of one hand into the tubular flowers of a foxglove, without breaking them off the stem. (check first for bees, kids) [/QUOTE] And wash your hands afterwards… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/33 "2008-06-24T13:05:30Z")
I wish I knew. oh wait…Now! Nothing? Missed it. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/34 "2008-06-24T13:16:51Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] -When the clasp of a necklace works its way all the way to the pendant. A wish is made when the clasp is moved back to the back of the neck. [/QUOTE] I knew this one but with extra rules: you can’t have touched the pendant or clasp, or looked at it in the mirror, between putting it on in the first place and discovering that the clasp is all the way around. It’s OK if someone tells you about the clasp, though. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/35 "2008-06-24T13:22:44Z")
I have learned over time NOT to make a wish when throwing a coin into a fountain. Every time I have ever done that the opposite of my wish has always come true. ---
**Author:** ![AimeeB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@AimeeB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AimeeB)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/36 "2008-06-24T15:34:26Z")
I always wish to 11:11! In fact, I usually remind my b/f to make a wish, too, and he generally replies, “I wish it wasn’t 11:11.” His wishes generally come true eventually 😛 ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/37 "2008-06-24T16:52:15Z")
[QUOTE=pbbth] I have learned over time NOT to make a wish when throwing a coin into a fountain. Every time I have ever done that the opposite of my wish has always come true. [/QUOTE] You should pull a George Constanza and wish the opposite! ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/38 "2008-06-24T17:28:22Z")
[QUOTE=Soul] Whenever you see a cardinal, if my mother is to be trusted. [/QUOTE] Hmmmm…I have cardinals at my birdfeeders every day. Does that mean I can wish all the time? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/39 "2008-06-24T18:26:06Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] By middle school, it was common. This would have been around '96 and onward, I suppose. [/QUOTE] Way to make me feel old, **Freudian Slit**. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969/40 "2008-06-24T18:53:55Z")
[QUOTE=TroubleAgain] Hmmmm…I have cardinals at my birdfeeders every day. Does that mean I can wish all the time? 😃 [/QUOTE] We had one outside of the bay windows by our dining room table, so I got to make one just about every day when I was a kid. I always wished for the same thing, though. Still hasn’t come true 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-allowed-to-make-a-wish/453969.md?page=3)