Sunday, October 11, 2009

Step On A Crack

Do you remember in your childhood, saying "Step on a crack, break your mother's back"? I can still vividly remember walking the few blocks from my childhood home to my paternal grandmother's house. Along the way, I was careful to miss any cracks in the pavement. This afternoon, Madeline and I took a walk around the corner to a local hardware store. This in itself was a nice treat as the streets surrounding our old house did not have sidewalks. In our new neighborhood we are walking distance to many more places and there are sidewalks along the way. Anyway, as Madeline and I walked along I noticed Madeline skipping all the cracks in the sidewalk. I know (at least I am almost certain) that Madeline has never heard the old "step on a crack" saying (nor did I tell her about it today) yet, there she was jumping over each of those cracks. Funny how children are almost pre-wired to buy into those childhood games/superstitions/traditions. That must have something to do with why these quirky traditions have been passed down for generations.

2 comments:

Paul said...

Just be nice to her. You don't want her to start to step on those cracks.

Amy said...

Funny you say that,Paul. I also remember purposely stepping on cracks once because I was mad at mom about not getting my way. I felt really guilty about it afterward.