Idiosyncrasy

[threemonkeys]

I just ate a delicious pear. In my opinion, it was perfectly ripe. Pears are tricky things - they go from under-ripe to over-ripe very quickly. I was reminded that in my family, there was a notion that a pear was only perfectly ripe for half an hour. By extension from that, people would say that something was in its half hour meaning that it was at its peak - they applied it to anything, not just pears. I only ever heard this notion of a half hour ripeness and the extension used by members of my extended family on my mother's side. Has anybody else heard it? I do wonder if it something that our family came up with. But it could easily be a regional piece of wisdom that the family carried to a new land..

Many things get passed down in families. Obviously genetics and inherited objects but also knowledge. The thing is, the knowledge boundaries are fuzzy. Things like family history are fairly obvious - they relate directly to the family. But bits of lore or techniques (e.g. recipes) are a bit tricky to ascribe an origin to. Sometimes the things that you think of as family knowledge are more widely known. I suspect that this is more common than you might realise. Alternatively things you think of as common knowledge turn out to be just known by your family. That can be embarrassing at times. My parents had a habit of naming local landmarks according to their own system rather than using the "official" names. As kid, that confused me.

Does anybody have any family lore they want to share - proverbs or sayings and the like?

Comments

[russellk.livejournal.com]

My mother in law always responsed to anyone who said they had a sore stomach by saying 'Rub it with a brick'. Apparently this and many other equally looney offerings came from her mother. I have no idea whether this is individual or regional, though I haven't heard it anywhere else.

This woman was interesting. She got married (again) at 88 years of age. The ceremony was at my wife's house (before I knew her) and TV turned up. The reporter asked her, tongue in cheek, if she'd be starting a family. Without hesitation she replied 'No, I'm on the pill.'

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I've never heard 'Rub it with a brick' either. It's a good one.