I’ve just used the expression, “Touch Wood” & realised I’ve never heard my grandchildren say it. Yesterday my 2 year old grandson wanted to open an umbrella inside and until my husband came home that was fine, then I knew better and we went outside. Walking under ladders doesn’t bother me unless something nasty is balanced on the top step. A strange black cat crossing my path would make me a little nervous but we owned a black cat for a few years so it never really freaked me out. Another common one in our childhood home was about spilling the salt. I think if you spilled the salt you had to toss a bit over your shoulder to stop the bad luck.
So, I don’t consider myself a superstitious person but there are some things I just won’t do.
Shoes on the table? NEVER! I don’t care if they’re brand new, to me it means there will be a fight. (Yes, you probably say, about your lunacy ) Never give a knife or soap as a present and if you give a purse you must always put some money in it. My husband also insists that when any new house is being built you must put a coin in the foundation where the door will go and when I was living in Scotland when people saw my baby for the first time they “crossed the baby’s palm with silver”.
Itchy body parts seem to be in a special category. Itchy left palm you will get money, itchy right palm you’ll have to pay out. Itchy nose, there will be a fight, itchy ear, or maybe that’s a hot ear, someone is talking about you, itchy feet you’re going on a journey…….. or it could be Tinea.
One that drove me nuts all my childhood concerned my mother. I think it happened when 3 birds flew across in front of her but I was never certain what set her off. She would put the points of her two index fingers together and then say, “Break them, break them” & I would have to slice between them with my own index finger. If I said I wasn’t going to do it unless she told me what it was about she’d just get so agitated that I always gave in.
So, has all this nonsense gone by the wayside or do the younger generations perpetuate it? 
Musings of a Retiring Person 
You have a great list here. I am not superstitious either, but I do not put my purse on the floor (you will lose money) and if I’m walking with a friend and we are separated by a pole between us as we are walking, we say ‘bread and butter’ (I don’t know why) and I am not afraid of Friday the 13th (USA) or Tuesday the 13th Spain. But I love all of those little traditions and I do pass them down to my kids with the understanding that they are sometimes simply common sense, but always fun to know. Great post!
I say ‘touch wood’ and do so, I think many people still do. And I sometimes throw salt over my shoulder if I spill some, but that’s something I picked up from watching a few too many (all, several times over) episodes of Charmed with my mother & sister. I have no idea why that superstition has stuck with me, but I find it oddly comforting.
It’s an interesting thought though, and some of these I’d never heard of, like putting a coin in the foundation of a house. I don’t think many people my age would bother, I think most are too sceptical. But I enjoyed reading your post 🙂