urban myths you remember

DM told me that if a hockey ball hit me on the breast, I would get cancer. She also said I shouldn't go out after washing my hair.

If you didn't wear a bra during the day you'd get cancer but you had to take it off in bed to let your breasts breathe.

A friend wasn't allowed to take a bath when on her period as well as not wash her hair.

Never go to bed with damp hair.

The weirdest one I heard, from a friend of my sister in law’s in the sixties, was that if you had unprotected sex and then jumped up and down for a few minutes afterwards you wouldn’t get pregnant. And no, I didn’t try it!

Don't swallow apple pips because they were poisonous. Although they are indeed poisonous you'd have to swallow an awful lot of them.

Don't swallow chewing gum as most of it stays in your stomach but part of it stretches through your entire intestine like a worm.

If you didn't wash your ears properly, potatoes would grow out of them. We had the don't wash your hair at your time of the month one too. We were told that if we swallowed chewing gum it would stick to our hearts and we would die!

That was common knowledge at my school too, Greyduster. If you wanted to be pregnant than it helped if you could stand on your head for a few minutes after sex.

No I wasn’t allowed to wash my hair or bath or go swimming ( mind you products were different the)
What about sitting on the radiators causes piles

Oooh yes hot radiators and cold floors/steps caused piles lol

A school friend told the rest of out set that you could only get pregnant if you did 'it' during your period i.e. when you were 'on heat'. We had a hard time disabusing her of this notion.

Oh yes, the don't wash your hair when you were having your period was a common one. We were told if we swallowed pips from any fruit a tree would grow in our stomachs! Allowing a baby to see its reflection would cause it to have painful teething also if we spent too long in front of the mirror we were told we would see the devil!

Perhaps more of a rural myth but my mother used to maintain that the first gooseberry pie of the year should be eaten on Whitsunday. Never found it possible myself, fond as we all are of gooseberry pie. No gooseberries known to me anything like ripe enough. My mother died 25 years ago, but I daren’t post on the Mothering Sunday page because I’ve forgotten to make a simnel cake.
Of the others, I remember the dangers of swallowing chewing gum being the reason we were never allowed it.

A friend was convinced she might be pregnant because a boy put his tongue in her mouth ...same also re chewing gum, apple pips..a tree would grow in your tummy haha

Meant same as other posters re chewing gum!!!

Can't get pregnant the first time or if do it standing up.

You're lucky to even have myths about pregnancy - neither of my parents ever mentioned it, I had to find out for myself.
Following on from O level biology I suppose.
I never realised until now what a sheltered up-bringing I had, and how naive I was.

You only got nits if you had dirty hair.

Collecting dandelions would mean you would wet the bed!

Riding a bike could cause you to loose your virginity.

Ooo Vampirequeen that worked for me twice! Standing on my head. A son and a daughter.

Following on from that Mapleleaf here in France dandelions are called pissenlit so maybe not a such a myth.

When I was a child my friend used to call dandelions pissabed (I remember being so embarrassed!). Perhaps they are diuretic.

Maggie. Yes dandilions are diuretics but you are supposed to drink them in a tea. Nettles are good for childblanes you have too get a bunch and thrash the area.ive never tried it

Interesting thought though *ethe

Did anyone else hear the tale of the lady who didn’t take down her beehive hairdo, just kept spraying it with hairspray. Of course, a ‘ lacquer bug’ grew inside it, ate its way into her skull, and she died!