Oral Transmission of Folklore

This is how wives tales and urban legends get started.

A while ago, Laylee and I were having a conversation and she COULD NOT concentrate on what I was saying because I kept closing my eyes.

Me: No I’m not.
Laylee: Yes you are. Please STOP!
Me: I’m just blinking.
Laylee: Please don’t do it. Look at me.

I then proceeded to give an increasingly dire account of what would happen if people didn’t blink to protect the moisture in their eyes. She still wanted me to stop. I finally ended the conversation by telling her that if people didn’t blink, then their eyes would shrivel up and fall out. Since she likes me to have eyes for things like reading stories and finding princess crowns, she decided I could keep them.

That was a couple of months ago.

Yesterday we were at the chiropractor, when the musculoskeletal diagram caught her attention.

Laylee: Hey mom! See that pirate? He’s got no EYES!
Me: Hmmm…
Laylee [matter-of-factly]: It’s because he never blinked and then they fell out. That’s sad. I try to blink sometimes in front of Magoo to teach him that he needs to moisturize.

Well halle-doodly-lujah! Any day now I expect to find her rubbing Oil of Olay into his sockets.