….. ten minutes before I opened my whitehairedwoman site this morning, I remembered an old quote – from my mother. I must thank Jennie, my sister who is five years younger than I, who answered my plea five minutes ago – I remembered the quote and was able to connect it with my family‘s teasing, but not who it teased or why.

I can’t say that it’s my favourite quote, since it has taken all this time to remember it – it must be almost fifty years and maybe more, since it was used……

Quotes are not something I think about very often. I always had difficulty remembering bits of books to use as quotes when doing exams or even to use in essays when preparing for exams.

One that I remember, sitting here in my conservatory, goes something like: “I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree,” which was supposedly said by a young George Washington. I suppose that was quoted to young Americans in elementary school back in the 50s in the hopes that we wouldn’t lie about naughty things we had done. I’m not sure it worked! I, personally, never lie,(!) but other people of my generation are still blatantly lying, even in public! (I’ll let you decide about whom I speak, dear reader.)

I’ve just looked at Google to see some other famous quotes and it was very helpful. You, too, can go there and type famous quotes into the search box – up will pop ten or twenty such as

1 To be or not to be

2 I think, therefore I am

3 I have a dream

4 The only thing to fear is fear itself

5 That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

But I did not find the teasing quote which was used, mostly by my mother, when asked, “What have you got me for Christmas, mommy?” And her answer (the quote I was talking about at the beginning) –

OLD MOULDY CHEESE!