I'm not really superstitous. I walk under ladders without thinking twice, and I never throw salt over my left shoulder (or is the right? What's that about, anyway?!)
I do, however, knock on wood, and I will sometimes refrain from saying something out loud for fear of jinxing it.
My one overwelming superstition, though, is one I completely made up on my own. I firmly believe that seeing an ambulance about town without its lights and sirens on is bad luck. Here is why....
When I was, oh, about 14, my brother was in a car accident. A friend's sister had taken her brother, my brother, and another neighborhood boy to town for some reason, and on their way an older man ignored a stop sign and plowed into them.
Everyone involved was fine, but it was so scary for me for a while. We got a call that J had been taken to the hospital, and my mom rushed down there, not really knowing anything. I was left at home with a friend to wait and worry.
All turned out fine, but I never forgot the worry and fear I felt that day. I also never forgot that on my way home from school that day I had seen an ambulance driving down a side street.
I have seen scores of ambulances since then, and every time I think of that day, and worry. Funny how some things stick in your brain.
(And no, not once since has something bad happened on a day I saw an ambulance. Knock on wood.)
