Guess the Cultural "Proverb"

[Neto]

OK. I won't hold you'll in "suspenders" anymore. Depending on the meaning of "swartz" in that context, something I cannot judge, that may be the German counterpart of the English version I always heard. Or else the original DID say "black" (or 'dark'), and someone back along in my family changed it, because my mom's family especially is on the dark complected, black hair side.

So here's the saying"

"If you sing at the table you'll get a lazy wife."

So finding myself in the situation of having completed nearly all of my preparation for going out as a missionary, and still being single, I said to my mom, "I'm almost ready to start singing at the table."
She asked me why, and I said, Maybe a lazy one is better than none at all. Then she suggested that I'd be better off to wait longer, and that's the way it worked out. (At least in my case.)

I cannot think of any more to post, so hoping that someone else will. (I want to not keep thinking of the fact that tanks belonging to an invading army are passing through my ancestral villages in the Moltschna colony area. Possibly also through the Cortitsa colony, because that area received greater pre-invasion bombing than did the Molotschna area.)

[Biblical Anabaptist]

OK. I won't hold you'll in "suspenders" anymore. Depending on the meaning of "swartz" in that context, something I cannot judge, that may be the German counterpart of the English version I always heard. Or else the original DID say "black" (or 'dark'), and someone back along in my family changed it, because my mom's family especially is on the dark complected, black hair side.

So here's the saying"

"If you sing at the table you'll get a lazy wife."

So finding myself in the situation of having completed nearly all of my preparation for going out as a missionary, and still being single, I said to my mom, "I'm almost ready to start singing at the table."
She asked me why, and I said, Maybe a lazy one is better than none at all. Then she suggested that I'd be better off to wait longer, and that's the way it worked out. (At least in my case.)

I cannot think of any more to post, so hoping that someone else will. (I want to not keep thinking of the fact that tanks belonging to an invading army are passing through my ancestral villages in the Moltschna colony area. Possibly also through the Cortitsa colony, because that area received greater pre-invasion bombing than did the Molotschna area.)

I don't think I ever heard that proverb. I asked my wife and she said they were not allowed to sing at the table but was never given the reason. It would, however, sound like something my mother-in-law or her mother would say. My wife's grandmother had a lot of strange superstitions such as not opening an umbrella in the house.

[silentreader]

OK. I won't hold you'll in "suspenders" anymore. Depending on the meaning of "swartz" in that context, something I cannot judge, that may be the German counterpart of the English version I always heard. Or else the original DID say "black" (or 'dark'), and someone back along in my family changed it, because my mom's family especially is on the dark complected, black hair side.

So here's the saying"

"If you sing at the table you'll get a lazy wife."

So finding myself in the situation of having completed nearly all of my preparation for going out as a missionary, and still being single, I said to my mom, "I'm almost ready to start singing at the table."
She asked me why, and I said, Maybe a lazy one is better than none at all. Then she suggested that I'd be better off to wait longer, and that's the way it worked out. (At least in my case.)

I cannot think of any more to post, so hoping that someone else will. (I want to not keep thinking of the fact that tanks belonging to an invading army are passing through my ancestral villages in the Moltschna colony area. Possibly also through the Cortitsa colony, because that area received greater pre-invasion bombing than did the Molotschna area.)

I don't think I ever heard that proverb. I asked my wife and she said they were not allowed to sing at the table but was never given the reason. It would, however, sound like something my mother-in-law or her mother would say. My wife's grandmother had a lot of strange superstitions such as not opening an umbrella in the house.

You mean that's superstition?

[Neto]

OK. I won't hold you'll in "suspenders" anymore. Depending on the meaning of "swartz" in that context, something I cannot judge, that may be the German counterpart of the English version I always heard. Or else the original DID say "black" (or 'dark'), and someone back along in my family changed it, because my mom's family especially is on the dark complected, black hair side.

So here's the saying"

"If you sing at the table you'll get a lazy wife."

So finding myself in the situation of having completed nearly all of my preparation for going out as a missionary, and still being single, I said to my mom, "I'm almost ready to start singing at the table."
She asked me why, and I said, Maybe a lazy one is better than none at all. Then she suggested that I'd be better off to wait longer, and that's the way it worked out. (At least in my case.)

I cannot think of any more to post, so hoping that someone else will. (I want to not keep thinking of the fact that tanks belonging to an invading army are passing through my ancestral villages in the Moltschna colony area. Possibly also through the Cortitsa colony, because that area received greater pre-invasion bombing than did the Molotschna area.)

I don't think I ever heard that proverb. I asked my wife and she said they were not allowed to sing at the table but was never given the reason. It would, however, sound like something my mother-in-law or her mother would say. My wife's grandmother had a lot of strange superstitions such as not opening an umbrella in the house.

You mean that's superstition?

I would never have thought of it as such. It was just a light-hearted way of telling us not to sing at the table during a meal. Why not? I imagine mostly because it keeps you from eating, and mothers want to get on with it, so they can clean up afterwards. I just used it in that situation to bring up the subject of my (unwanted) "singleness". I only have one sister, and I do not recall there ever being a saying that was aimed at a girl who was singing at the table. (There were four of us boys first, born over a 10 year period.)

[ohio jones]

"If you sing at the table you'll get a lazy wife."

Another source suggests "if you whistle or sing at the dinner table (meal time) you would have a crazy spouse."

There is also a book on the subject, but it's unclear without reading the book what the details of the proverb are.

[temporal1]

Neto:
.. She asked me why, and I said, Maybe a lazy one is better than none at all. ..

Neto, such a fun topic.
Who doesn’t empathize with the heart of a young one hoping for marriage?!

As for the saying, it’s more creative than what we often heard, “Eat! Your food is getting cold!”

[barnhart]

Possibly related is a Cantonese proverb about how one holds chopsticks that I heard from international students. Neto, how does this work, am I to say it outright?

[barnhart]

It went something like this, "If you hold the chopsticks close to the tips when you eat, then __________________________, but if you hold them near the back ___________________________."

[Grace]

Some cultural proverbs I heard growing up.

If it rains on your wedding day, you will have a sloppy husband.

These were some of my mother's cleaning culture "proverbs".

If you sweep the dirt under the rug, you will sweep your spiritual dirt under the rug as well.

If you don't clean the corners good, you will not keep the corners of your life clean either.

My mother had a way to spiritualize cleaning, but it sure left an indelible impression on me.

One of my Dad's "keep the house warm" proverbs.

Shut your doors, your letting the heat out, you weren't born in a barn.

I could never figure out what the barn had to do with not closing doors.

[JimFoxvog]

I could never figure out what the barn had to do with not closing doors.

The barn animals don't close the barn doors usually, IMHO.