One that's very specific to my family is to answer an unfortunate event with: "Did you have enough butter?"
Nobody is really sure when it started, but at some point my Grandmother started claiming that it was bad luck to have too little butter in the house. She lived some distance from town and would drive in to do grocery shopping once a month or so. She also liked butter, so she would clip coupons and wait for it to be on sale before she'd buy a large quantity. She'd store it in the freezer. It was quite common for her to have seven to ten pounds of butter in the house at any given time. If she got down to three or four pounds of butter she'd start to act nervous. (She knew it was ridiculous, but it was a fun tradition.)
My Grandmother drank very black coffee from a percolator every morning with toast so brown it was almost burnt and lots of butter. Most of the time dipped in the coffee.
Today all across my family it's common to hear some permutation of "Do you have enough butter?" for all sorts of reasons. If you crashed your car someone would say "I bet you didn't have enough butter." Diagnosed with athlete's foot, "You probably don't have enough butter." Forgot your wallet, "Do you have enough butter?"
665
One that's very specific to my family is to answer an unfortunate event with: "Did you have enough butter?"
Nobody is really sure when it started, but at some point my Grandmother started claiming that it was bad luck to have too little butter in the house. She lived some distance from town and would drive in to do grocery shopping once a month or so. She also liked butter, so she would clip coupons and wait for it to be on sale before she'd buy a large quantity. She'd store it in the freezer. It was quite common for her to have seven to ten pounds of butter in the house at any given time. If she got down to three or four pounds of butter she'd start to act nervous. (She knew it was ridiculous, but it was a fun tradition.)
My Grandmother drank very black coffee from a percolator every morning with toast so brown it was almost burnt and lots of butter. Most of the time dipped in the coffee.
Today all across my family it's common to hear some permutation of "Do you have enough butter?" for all sorts of reasons. If you crashed your car someone would say "I bet you didn't have enough butter." Diagnosed with athlete's foot, "You probably don't have enough butter." Forgot your wallet, "Do you have enough butter?"
It's a family thing, but I like it.