Share the wisdom of your grandparents!

[Robb]

My late gramps had two gems:

"Robb, you're a good boy, but remember: there's no demand for it."

and

"When all else fails, switch to scotch."

...the latter was a solution to just about every problem from human dynamics to auto repair.

[Qanisqineq]

1. I don't have anything funny but

the one thing my grandpa constantly repeated... "there's one thing no one can ever take away from you, your education"

[Warren Stuart]

2. My Tough-as-Nails Grandmother was visiting once

She was a city person who once had a house in the country, she came to visit us in the suburbs. Once there she picked up a rake and started raking leaves. I didn't realize that this could be a pleasurable experience to a city person, to me it was a chore.

I tried to relieve her of this chore and she snapped at me and said "I'd never ask someone to do something for me that I could do for myself".

This stuck with me.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. "put it through the eyeball"

Those are about the only words of wisdom I can remember my grandpa giving me.

He was speaking, of course, to fishing and how to apply the hook to the bait.

[pansypoo53219]

9. my grandpa preferred the back.

of course i refused and put it through the lips. he finally did it my way in his last years.
now if only i could tie a hook as good as he did.

[MuseRider]

4. Those are good ones!

My grandfather told me the same. His biggest, most serious advice to me was to be nice to everyone, even the jerks and you will be rewarded. Simple and true. I have found that even people I do not get along with at least can't say I am not a nice person. It is a difficult task but the other reward of that is that it becomes easy to live with yourself.

[TOhioLiberal]

5. One good turn...

...gets all the blankets!

[trof]

6. Grandpa: WW I infantry

Upon my going into the military:
"Never stand when you can sit. Never walk when you can ride. And never NEVER volunteer."

[quispquake]

7. My grandfather had a million of 'em...

My favorite...

Always get good shoes & a good mattress...If you're not in one, you're in the other...

[Bertha Venation]

8. bless my Okie Grandma's good, pure heart . . .

She once told me, with obvious difficulty, and the last words spoken with great venom: *

"You just, just stay away from boys because . . . because . . . it's just like a sssnake!!"

So many times I've wanted to say to her, "Grandma, have no worries. I took your advice."



*pun intended

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Perhaps she was just being, you know... geometrical? (nt)

[RoyGBiv]

10. Swear to god....

My grandmother, upon hearing me scream at some kid down the road who'd pissed me off: "Son, never tell someone to "eat me." They could be a Republican and take you seriously."

My grandmother hated Republicans.

[SOteric]

11. My father's father had a pearl of wisdom

he passed to my dad. It has become a kind of family motto:

If you're going to dream, - dream big.


Nonni Sophie offered: "Some other mother has a nice son too," and a really kick-ass recipe for homemade caramel sauce. There just aren't a whole lot of things that can't be made better with a pint of ice cream and a real caramel sauce.

[eyesroll]

12. My grandmother took one look at my very pretty "Reagan '84" poster

I was 9, and it was for school -- we could choose which candidate to promote, but everybody did Reagan. It probably involved glitter and even googly eyes.

She sat me down on her knee, and explained to me that "we don't vote for Republicans," and why.
Actually, although I don't remember the "whys," I do remember she talked about it in context -- "we" = Jewish people. But it stuck.

[LynneSin]

19. peer pressure can be tough for 9 year olds

[Melsky]

13. Don't go outside with wet hair

For some reason, both of my grandmothers think going outside with wet hair is a guaranteed way to get a bad cold and possibly die.

[DemOverseas]

14. Grandmother's Advice

If you get hit by a car while walking in the street crawl to a crosswalk.
What you tell a friend today will be used by an enemy tomorrow. So keep your trap shut!
When you go out in the street remember what your name is.
Don't pay for what you can do yourself.
Don't reflect on others words let them tell you what they mean.
Get off your dead ass and do something.
If you can't reach it stand on a piece of paper.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Never met any. :( Will father do?

After all, he was 51 when I was born, lived through the Spanish Civil War, and is now 90 and still kicking ass.

"A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando."

Loose translation: pray to God is OK, but YOU have to DO things.

I still think my Dad was an in-the-closet agnostic, at least. The official position at house was the Catholic one, but we never went to church. He's quite the skeptic, scientifically minded individual. When the Cosmos series by Carl Sagan first aired, it was him who told me, saying in no unclear terms I HAD to watch. And boy was I glad.

Another piece of wisdom (paraphrased) from him which is almost Zen:

Everything is, in a sense, alive. There's feverish activity even inside of a rock. Even empty space is "alive".

After I learned a bit about quantum mechanics, I figured that's where he must have taken it from.

ON EDIT: Although that's far from original, he was the first person from which I heard "Jesus was a socialist".

[LynneSin]

16. Cars are meant to get you to and from someplace...

...so don't go spending a whole lot of money to do it

(my grandfather's last 2 cars were a Plymouth Horizon and a used Plymouth Reliant that was 10 years old but only had 20k miles)

[catmandu57]

17. "It's a great life, if you don't weaken first".

Was one of my grandfather's favorite sayings, one I've been pondering for years. He had a hard life, poorer than poor, don't know how he made it through the depression.
My grandmother when my parents were divorcing in an ugly messy fight and I lived with my father's parents, she was a very devout person and lived the life of a true christian.
One night we were on the porch swing and I told her I hated my soon to be stepfather. She said to me in a disapointing tone "Never hate anyone, you can dislike them but don't hate".

[Robb]

21. That story reminded me of this one

...from grandma on the Texas side of things:

"Never love nothin' don't love you back."

Boy do I need to tattoo THAT one on my forehead, backwards so I can read it every morning in the mirror!

[Angelus]

18. My grandpa had told me this:

"Poo-poo and pee-pee on your fingers will catch fish."

I KID YOU NOT!

He was a nut like that.

[veganwitch]

22. the first time i got engaged

she got all misty-eyed then said, "if you get pregnant, ill kill you."

well that relationship is over and im currently pregnant and unmarried and in no rush to change that. i guess its a good thing she's no longer alive though it would be really cool for her to see her great-grandchild.

my gramma was a catholic and when we converted to luthernism, she really was concerned that we were going to go to hell.

god i loved that woman.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. dont build your happiness on someone elses tears

i try to live by that

[Fleshdancer]

24. Three things you must always know how to say in a foreign country:

1. I love you
2. Where is the bathroom?
3. I am hungry

This was from my Grandpa

The only advice I got from Grandma was on my wedding day: "Don't go to bed angry...I never followed this advice but I probably should have because everyone says it."