By Rosie Moore

My grandchildren and great-grandchildren call me Nana. I called my grandmother Nana. It runs on the family. My Nana had a lot of sayings, some of them made up, I think, and lot that are true today. Here are some of them:

This one was her favorite and still popular today: “Don’t leave the house with dirty or torn underwear on. What if you are in an accident? How embarrassing!

She had strong ideas about what’s going on in the world. If there are a lot of boys born in any given year, there will be a war in about eighteen years. When the Democrats are ruling Congress, there will be a war. Republicans in Congress meant peace. Also she was positive “it always rains on Election Day”.

This is a true saying: don’t use the scissors or needle in a thunderstorm. We lived in a second-floor apartment and whenever it started to storm we would huddle on the stairway in the hall, hoping the lightening wouldn’t strike there.

She had prominent ideas about beauty: It is only skin deep. Pretty is as pretty does. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

My personal favorite is, don’t wear white from Labor Day till after Memorial Day. She also hammered into me, a person is known by the company he keeps. And an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Last, but not least, she always admonished me that anyone who will gossip to you will gossip about you.

I have a feeling that young people today don’t know any of these sayings, which is sad. I think, they don’t seem to belong in this technical age but wouldn’t it be great if they would live by them instead of the nonsensical axioms they hear today. Dream on!

Thought for the day: Laughter is a tranquilliser with no side effects.