“A common my that my mother to this day, and I mean today, repeats is you’ll catch a cold or you’ll catch your death if you go outside with wet hair,” said Rusco. “Of course, I listen to the sage advice of my mother. Still, I have friends who virtually never use hairdryers and leave the house every morning with clean, wet hair. Wet hair hasn’t hurt them so far. Hmmm.”

Pregnancy precautions abound, and Kristie Girdner recalls one her grandmother swore was truth.

“My grandmother told me when I was pregnant with my kids not to put my hands above my head,” said Girdner. “[She said if I did] the [umbilical] cord would wrap around the baby’s neck.”

Linda Pope works with youth at the United Methodist Children’s Home, and has worked in group settings a great deal of her life. Throughout her tenure, she’s collected some doozy medical myths.

“I’ve heard that boys should pee on their feet in the shower to avoid contracting athlete’s foot,” said Pope. “The girls where I went to school were told never to wash their hair while they were on their periods. My grandmother said if Camphophenique and a Band-Aid won’t cure it, it can’t be cured.”

Pope also mentioned avoiding swallowing watermelon seeds lest you sprout a watermelon in your belly, and that singing before breakfast would make you ill before supper.

Tahlequah High School English teacher Shannon Jolliff had a mortal fear of potatoes, thanks to the sage advice of her grandmother.

“My grandmother used to tell use the ‘eyes’ on the potatoes would bite us,” said Jolliff. “For a long time - into my teen years - I hated to pick up the potatoes for fear of some malevolent happening. However, looking back, I realize there were way too many of us grandkids who would’ve piled into the kitchen while she was trying to cook if we’d not been threatened with something!”

Jolliff has also realized over the years that some of that advice was pretty good.

“My dad’s mom, Granny, always told us ‘a little dirt never hurts,’” she said. “She is still such a calm, serene, pragmatic person. She never minded if we were filthy, as long as we were having fun being kids. I know that as a parent of a young daughter, I am always worried about germs and dirt, but I think that life was much simpler when I was a kid. My granny worked as a nurse for 30 years, and was just pretty calm about all kinds of ailments. With five kids and 17 grandkids, I guess she’d seen about all the ‘normal’ kid stuff, too.”

Isabel Baker’s kids probably never had to wear long underwear unless they wanted to, thanks to Baker’s mother.

“The [myth and rule] I hated the most was wearing long underwear until April,” said Baker. “If you took it off, my mom would say, ‘Sure, it’s warm, but this is pneumonia weather, young lady, so keep it on!’”

Baker also hates the smell of kerosene, thanks to a home version of bug repellent employed when she was a kid.

“Something really distasteful to me was wrapping my ankles and wrists with cloths socked in kerosene to keep the chiggers and ticks away while picking blackberries,” she said. “I hated the smell and was afraid I would catch fire from my brother smoking!”

Becky Wolfe probably never kissed any frogs hoping for a prince, as she was brought up believing frogs - or a by-product of frogs - would give you warts.