Friday, April 26, 2013

W is for Wishbone Wishes




A wishbone can be described as "the V-shaped bone above the breastbone in most birds consisting of the fused clavicles."

After a meal of turkey, my grandmother would always take the wishbone form the carcass and lay it to dry in the hot oven (what she called the top portion of our old wood stove).  When the wishbone was dry, it was given to two people to pull apart until it cracked and broke into two pieces, each person made a silent wish while pulling.  The goal was to get the 'long half' of the wishbone so your wish would come true.  If the wishbone broke evenly, both would have their wishes come true.  (Provided the wish was kept secret, if you told anyone it wouldn't come true of course.)




23 comments:

  1. Again another tradition I am familiar with :)

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  2. I grew up with that one.

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  3. You do know, of course, how Oirish that first sentence is... that the wishbone looks like a V.

    Me? I would say it in a German accent... "Ach, so das Vishbone looks like der V, see."

    Makes perfect sense to me.

    PS... see you here in Forty-FIVE years :)

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  4. My sister and I did this, too, every time my family had a roast chicken or turkey. :)

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  5. Replies
    1. only once? you need to increase those odds to get wishes :)

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  6. We use to do that all the time but then my brother tried to do it to me and, well, I ran out of wishes after that:)It was fun watching him get told by my mom though

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  7. I never know how to grip it right and usually get the small end.

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    Replies
    1. its all about the grip - I'll have to teach you :)

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  8. This is pretty cool Bay Girl, I remember hearing something about this over here but I haven't thought of it too much.

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  9. Wishbones have always been a lot of fun. Nice post!

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  10. Our tradition was a little different. The wishbone was put on the kitchen window ledge to dry out. It wasn't broken until the next Thanksgiving.

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