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Thread: Cracks in pavement - help please

  1. #1
    Registered User SteveK's Avatar
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    Cracks in pavement - help please

    I've done a brief internet search, and can't seem to find the answer to a question that has been bugging me all morning:

    I was walking to work this morning, and remembered a story/game from childhood where if you were walking along the pavement, you had to avoid stepping on the gaps between paving slabs, otherwise the "bears would get you". Can anyone help me with the story/reference please?

    Does anyone admit to still avoiding stepping on the gaps between paving slabs, just in case?

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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Step on a crack and bears would get you?

    For me it was step on a crack and you'd break your mothers back...

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    Registered User ~*~Saligal~*~'s Avatar
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie View Post
    Step on a crack and bears would get you?

    For me it was step on a crack and you'd break your mothers back...
    Yup - this is the one I recall as well...
    I found this when looking for it's origin... Cracks

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    Registered User SteveK's Avatar
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by ~*~Saligal~*~ View Post
    Yup - this is the one I recall as well...
    I found this when looking for it's origin... Cracks
    Thanks for this - at least the superstition exists anyway.

    However I'm sure that there was some kind of poem or story - perhaps a child going up to London for the day, and then being careful to avoid stepping on the cracks. I think it was something fairly whimsical, but can't remember what it was!!

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    Registered User Tessalicious's Avatar
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    I was always told it was crocodiles rather than bears - maybe because that's what I was scared of as a kid.

    Is the man-hole-cover superstition related to this one? It's one that I picked up quite recently but makes me very paranoid. The rule is, if you step on a 3-slab cover, it's bad luck, 2 slabs and it's good luck and 1 slab cancels out the last.

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    The Dashing Moderator
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    It's A A Milne: "Lines and Squares" (from When We Were Very Young)

    Link to poem.
    Last edited by DavidY; 4th-January-2008 at 09:51 AM. Reason: Added link
    Love dance, will travel

  7. #7
    Registered User SteveK's Avatar
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidY View Post
    It's A A Milne: "Lines and Squares" (from When We Were Very Young)

    Link to poem.
    Many thanks for this - I was going to say that it reminded me of Winnie the Pooh, but wasn't sure of the reference. A definite ++ for the forum for the reference!!!

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by SteveK View Post
    Does anyone admit to still avoiding stepping on the gaps between paving slabs, just in case?
    They are victims of OCD if they do

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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    They are victims of OCD if they do

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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    They are victims of OCD if they do
    may be, but at least they are crocodiles-safe victims

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    Registered User ~*~Saligal~*~'s Avatar
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidY View Post
    It's A A Milne: "Lines and Squares" (from When We Were Very Young)

    Link to poem.
    Good find - so I'm still wondering about the origin of "break your mother's back" came from... I haven't found anything substantial on it

  12. #12
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    Re: Cracks in pavement - help please

    Quote Originally Posted by ~*~Saligal~*~ View Post
    Good find - so I'm still wondering about the origin of "break your mother's back" came from... I haven't found anything substantial on it
    Nothing to back it up, but it just seems to me another example of political correctness (let's no longer talk about blacks) - change a bit to make it acceptable (although why you would want to break your mothers back or make her black - if she was not already, who knows...).

    Similarly "blimy" or "cor blimy" coming from 'God Blind me' - just drop the 'God" bit and say it quick and it becomes acceptable. Still blaspheming maybe?

    'Bastard' was an unacceptable term for many USA films, thus they invented a hollywood term of "Son of a bitch".

    And yes, I used to avoid the cracks in the streets when I was young, it was a bit of a game, but I am not sure why I did it...
    Last edited by Martin; 5th-January-2008 at 05:11 AM. Reason: to insert a smilie, but I could not find one when editing

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