“I am Chinese-American, by which I mean, like, both my parents are directly from China and I speak Chinese to them sometimes. One thing that my parents taught me that I for some reason still think is true is that the number four is very unlucky. The number four in Chinese sounds like the word for death when you say it out loud. This is why a lot of Chinese people don’t like the number or want the number associated with them, because it is bad luck. Once my mother freaked out because my locker number at school was number 244, and she thought it was a bad omen and that I might get hurt at that locker. She made me change locker numbers.”

“Then when I was at college, and when I had to decide where to live for sophomore housing, I found a really nice, cheap apartment, but it was on the fourth floor. I decided that I did not want any bad luck, so I moved to a smaller apartment at the same price just so I could avoid the number four.”

Frances’s avoidance of the number four shows how her parents’ superstition wore off on her. Although she admits that the whole thing is silly, she still does not want to “jinx it,” as she would say. The similarity between how the word for ‘four’ and the word for ‘death’ sound is reason enough for her to change her moving plans.

“One last peculiar thing my grandmother did was that she would insist that everyone shake the milk up in the bottle before they drink it. She was from the old country and she would be adamant that ‘all the good stuff was at the bottom’ so she would make everyone shake the milk. When we would try to explain to her that the milk was pasteurized and that the whole thing was ‘good milk’ she would explain that I did not know what I was talking about and insist I shake the milk to get the nutrients. Once I even caught myself telling my friend that she had to shake the milk to get all the nutrients, then I caught myself and realized what I was saying was ridiculous.”

Jelena’s grandmother’s insistence that the milk be shaken was probably due to the fact that non-homogenized milk, which is milk that has not been processed, will form a thick layer at the top similar to diary cream. In order to make the liquid return to milk, one must shake up the jug before pouring it. Her grandmother most likely never adjusted to processed milk.

Most interesting though is that Jelena even caught herself saying that the milk needed to be shaken, before catching herself. This is a good example about how folk beliefs and legends catch on. It might seem simple, but Jelena telling her friend that means the information might get disseminated and the legend will continue to survive.

“Well I know my grandmother is very superstitious, and one day we were all outside sitting on her driveway, and we were really young kids—there are three girls in the family and one boy—we are all about the same age, and we were all sitting out on the plain old pavement when she comes running out with three carpet squares. And she is yelling, ‘Don’t sit on the ground! Don’t sit on the ground!’ and we are asking why we can’t sit on the pavement. And she says because then you won’t be able to have babies. I guess there is a legend that if a girl sits on plain pavement then she will not be able to have children in the future. ”

Jelena assumed that this knowledge on her grandmother’s part was passed down from generation to generation, but that it was certainly not anything she had ever heard before. Perhaps this legend or superstition stemmed from the fact that the pavement is hot, and could burn the girls, or perhaps it was used as an incentive to make the girls not sit on the ground (and so behave more ladylike). I was unable to find any information about the origins of this legend.