Family lore

It's the first of the month. That often makes think of an incident from my childhood. I don't think I can't verify it because of a lack of witnesses - the main one probably doesn't remember it fully - but I believe it to be true.

My sister had heard a silly little tale that when you woke up on the first day of the month, you had to say the words "rabbit, rabbit" aloud the first thing in the morning. It was supposed to bring you good luck. That meant first thing. If you stepped on the floor before saying the words, it was too late.

Naturally, it was easier in concept than execution. My sister and I would try to remember, but we'd always stagger out of bed, slap our heads (or the equivalent), and move on to the rest of an unlucky month.

One first of the month, though, I remember that I asked my sister if she had remembered this time around and she said yes.

Later that day, Jane felt a sharp pain in her side that wouldn't go away. That resulted in a trip to the hospital, which resulted in her appendix coming out. She later told me that, just to add to the hurt, she wasn't covered my health insurance at the time. So our parents had to pay for it, and then she paid them back ... at $10 a week. I think she's still sending checks to the estate.

You think I've said "rabbit, rabbit" on the first of the month since then? Not a chance. I prefer to keep my appendix right where it is, thank you. I never paid tribute to rabbits since that day.

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