International Left Handers Day

[The Tinker]

Today is International Left Handers day and it makes me smile to think how things have changed for us 'lefties'. My mother had her left hand
tied behind her back and was not allowed to use it for writing!

Both my children are right handed but I have inadvertently taught them to do various things the 'lefty' way - eg eating.

Are there any other lefties out there?

[Stephen]

Count me in Tink.

All the best people are lefties

[Manoverboard]

Mobietta is ... and although she does many things right handed she is directionally programmed to turn left

[Meg 50]

yup - all the best people are left handed!

[Meg 50]

my mother was forced to be right handed too - she reckoned it left her with a stutter and said that if school tried to force me, that was the only thing she'd "come up to school and complain about"

She used to say that it's a right handed world and offered things to my right hand - which I immediately transferred to my left... When I was 5 I broke my left wrist and had to be right handed for 6 or 8 weeks ( a bout of measles slowed the healing process). I was quite proficient by the time the plaster came off, but reverted to left hand within seconds - at which point she gave up hope of me ever being right handed.

[Meg 50]

Also, my mum was a Scot - from the Kerr clan.

She used to tell me about their spiral staircases - built the opposite way to everyone else's. Many people were very sceptical - including OH and a shop asst in the Scottish borders until I picked up a book about the clan in her shop and on page one it mentioned 'Karry-Handed ' and spiral staircases!!!!!!

[oldbluefox]

Greetings fellow left handlers. I can't believe some of the rubbish written about being left handed. It's just how it is IMO.
It's sometimes awkward growing up in a right hand world but you learn to adapt.

[sue-ol]

I'm another leftie and have always been grateful to my Primary schoolteacher[ we had the same one thro' the 4 primary years] who made a point of teaching us lefties how to do things like sewing and writing with ink pens.

[oldbluefox]

Writing with ink pens was a trial. Carefully copy what was on the blackboard only to find you had smudged it all with your trailing hand. Back to square one!

[Jan Rosser]

Two left handers in my family - eldest son who writes with his left hand but plays squash and golf right handed and my youngest granddaughter is left handed too.

[Meg 50]

I'm another leftie and have always been grateful to my Primary schoolteacher[ we had the same one thro' the 4 primary years] who made a point of teaching us lefties how to do things like sewing and writing with ink pens.

hmmm - we were taught italic print in the 3rd year of grammar school - except me - I was given a book by the art teacher and told to teach myself

[Meg 50]

Two left handers in my family - eldest son who writes with his left hand but plays squash and golf right handed and my youngest granddaughter is left handed too.

My OH is lefgt handed too , but strangely enough our girls aren't.

Senior daughter is totally right handed, junior daughter is mainly right handed, but some activities she found very hard as a child and discovered that by swapping hands she could manage better - like bowling and archery!

one of my brothers although right handed, was left footed in football, and in cricket bowled right handed and batted left ( or vice versa!)

[melsea]

I am predominately right handed but do lots of things with my left hand that I can't do with my right hand. When I was in primary school I used to switch from left to right which meant my handwriting was not very good.
Happy Left handed day to you all..

[oldbluefox]

Anybody else like me who eats with the fork in the left hand but then uses a spoon in the left hand as well. It seems logical to me as I use the left hand to shovel move food from plate to mouth. Surely I'm not the only one.

[gfwgfw]

I use my left hand to write cheques

Saved me lots and lots money

[Quizzical Bob]

This is all very sinister.

[Silver_Shiney]

There's something sinister about this....

[The Tinker]

Anybody else like me who eats with the fork in the left hand but then uses a spoon in the left hand as well. It seems logical to me as I use the left hand to shovel move food from plate to mouth. Surely I'm not the only one.

Yep I do that - had great fun on one cruise as I kept changing my cutlery round to suit and the waiter kept changing it back. He suddenly cottoned on that I was a leftie and managed to serve my coffee etc with the handle the appropriate way from thereon in

[Mervyn and Trish]

Anybody else like me who eats with the fork in the left hand but then uses a spoon in the left hand as well. It seems logical to me as I use the left hand to shovel move food from plate to mouth. Surely I'm not the only one.

We're both left handed and use cutlery that way. I throw a ball and hold a tennis racquet left handed but hold a cricket bat or golf club right handed. Not that I'm any good at any of those sports.

[Meg 50]

Anybody else like me who eats with the fork in the left hand but then uses a spoon in the left hand as well. It seems logical to me as I use the left hand to shovel move food from plate to mouth. Surely I'm not the only one.

Yep I do that - had great fun on one cruise as I kept changing my cutlery round to suit and the waiter kept changing it back. He suddenly cottoned on that I was a leftie and managed to serve my coffee etc with the handle the appropriate way from thereon in

that was the one thing I couldn't train the waiters to do.

every dessert time they'd lay my spoon and fork the right handed way and I, with great ceremony, would swap them over so the spoon was on my left hand side; and even after 26 nights they still put it out on my right

[sue-ol]

Ah, so many bells ringing! Meg, I didn't meet italics until training as a teacher. We had to do calligraphy and the lefties had reverse oblique nibs for lettering and yes when it came to italics we were told that we wouldn't be able to do it! Eating, at a conference I had a friend refuse to sit on my left side in the dining room because I used my knife in my left head I encroached into her space! I have trained myself not to change the spoon and fork over until the dessert is on the table.

[Gill W]

I'm also a lefthander

My uncle was a lefthander, born in the early 1920's and, at school, he was forced to write with his right hand. Attitudes were clearly changing - by the time my mum (also left handed) came along six years later she was allowed to write with her left hand.

I didn't even know it was 'Left Handers Day' the other day. I don't know why we need a special day - I don't feel like I'm disadvantaged in any way by being left handed.

In fact it's a positive advantage - most computers are set up for right handed mouse use, so I mouse with my right hand and write at the same time with my left - the ultimate in multi tasking.

I've always held my knife in my right hand while I'm eating, because it seems natural to fork food into my mouth with my left hand, the same way I spoon food in with my left hand when having dessert or soup

I must admit I look out for left handers on TV. David Walliams is one of us

[Mervyn and Trish]

If it wasn't for schools in older days forcing children to write with their right hand I'm sure there'd be more of us about. Naturally I see no reason why it shouldn't be 50/50.

[Ranchi]

Don't know, Mervyn. There are many things in nature that can go left or right from plant parts to individual molecules. Few of them show a 50:50 ratio in occurrence.

[The Tinker]

Would be interesting to know the ratio of left versus right - no doubt it may be recorded somewhere?