Bread and Butter Superstition

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Carrie Thompson.

Hi, Carrie. Where are you calling from?

Actually, I’m from San Diego, but I’m actually in D.C. today.

Welcome to the show. How can we help?

My grandmother, who is very, very superstitious, when we were growing up, she did this thing that stuck with me.

And I do it mentally in my mind whenever it happens.

But basically, whenever we walked in, either one of us was on either side of a pole or something kind of divided us and we were on either side.

She would say bread and butter.

I have no idea why she said that.

And it’s the funniest thing because now she’s gone.

But mentally, whenever this happens, I mentally say it in my head as well.

And so I’m just curious.

Is this something that she made up?

Or where did it come from?

And is it tied to being superstitious?

Do you feel like if you don’t say it that something bad will happen?

Yeah.

I mean, that kind of is the feeling that she conveyed when she said that.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so now you say it mentally when you’re walking with somebody else, you don’t say it out loud?

No, with my kids I do, but with people, you know, like with business and stuff like that, I don’t say it out loud.

Interesting.

Yeah, and interesting that you mentioned superstition because it may have its roots in superstition.

The notion that these two people should be inseparable,

And it’s sort of an incantation for keeping people together like bread and butter.

You can’t really separate bread and butter once the butter is spread on there.

You can find an episode of The Twilight Zone in which this occurs online.

Oh, funny.

And it’s really cool.

It’s with a very, very young and handsome William Shatner.

It’s a 1960 version of The Twilight Zone.

I think it’s called Nick of Time.

And it’s all about superstitions.

And there’s a moment very early in that episode

Where he’s walking arm in arm with his wife

And then they’re about to go around a lamppost

And he pulls her close to him and says bread and butter

And they go around on the same side.

Oh, interesting.

But the whole episode is about superstition

So I think you’d enjoy that.

Oh, definitely.

I’ve got to check it out.

In some of the old folklore collections that I’ve found,

They talk about it as a way of preventing quarrels

Because if you don’t say it, you’re going to fight.

And they did a survey of people in the, this is in 1907, this publication,

And it was fairly common and is a very well-known superstition.

It was like the main thing that you said to avoid fighting.

But a lot of times people think it’s only if you’re holding hands to start with.

If you’re simply walking with them, you don’t have to say it,

But if you’re holding hands, then you do.

And that kind of makes sense because she was born in the 20s.

So it’s kind of close to that early 1900s.

So it is a superstition.

What other superstitions did she have?

Oh, my goodness.

She would throw salt over her shoulder at certain times.

She also had a thing with the number 13, but not as a bad luck, but as a good luck.

And she was somebody who enjoyed going to Vegas, and whenever she was in Vegas,

She would, like, count 13 machines over, and she’d sit at that one.

That sounds really cool.

Carrie, thanks for sharing the stories about your grandmother, and thanks for sharing bread and butter with us.

Yeah, awesome.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Take care.

Sure thing.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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