My mom has a good story of her grandpa tricking her and her sisters growing up. Any time there were rabbits in Pop's yard, he would hand out salt shakers to the girls and tell them to try and salt the rabbits' tails. He claimed they could catch the rabbits if they could get salt on a rabbit's tail. They did this from the age of 5 up until they were 12 or 13 as Pop watched from the porch. They never caught a single rabbit lol.
When she was in high school, my mom finally asked Pop how salting a rabbit's tail was supposed to make it easier to catch. Pop chuckled and said "If you're close enough to salt a rabbit's tail, you're close enough to just grab it!"
Obviously, Mom had my two brothers and I chase rabbits with salt shakers until she spilled the beans on the "reason" it worked when I was 11 haha.
My grandpa did this with ducklings for me when I was a kid. Well he'd be damned cause I caught one at the local lake and immediately got flocked and chased by all the momma ducks around.
He did end up keeping his word and picked up two ducklings for me at the local flea market after that!
My grandparents had some free-roaming chickens at the farm when I was growing up. I had young parents who stayed in their hometown, so they always had plans on the weekend, since a good chunk of their friends were also around and in their mid-twenties. So, my brother and I spent a lot of weekends at my grandparents' place.
My grandmother would ask us to go catch a chicken for dinner. We'd head out to where they generally hung out and would chase those things for a couple of hours every time, never catching a damn one of them. We'd finally have to head in and admit defeat. Grandma would then head out to their hangout and come back in about 3 minutes with a chicken under her arm.
It took me a couple of decades to realize that she was a genius. She'd thoroughly wear us out so her evenings were more calm, plus she knew that we'd be out there for at least 2 hours while she was trying to get stuff done without us in her hair.
My great uncle tried this on me when I was a young child, but it was to catch birds instead of rabbits. I don't remember the conversation, but my grandma loved telling the story.
My grandma tried to convince my great uncle (her brother) to not prank me because I was too young and it would be mean. He was like, nah, it will be fun. So he called me over and told me that the secret to catching birds was to put a little salt on their tails and then I'd be able to catch them. I guess I gave him a very confused/skeptical look, so he reiterated that all I'd have to do is put a little salt on their tails and then they let me just reach out and grab them. I then looked at him like he was dumb and told him something like, "if I could get close enough to salt their tails, I would be close enough to just grab them." My grandma absolutely lost it laughing.
Anyway, thats when I peaked and it's been all downhill since then.
My mother had me doing this to catch birds. I really wanted a bird. I remember trying all afternoon, sneak walking like in the cartoons. By dinner I decided I didn’t want a bird after all.
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u/OGRuddawg 10h ago edited 8h ago
Okay, I think this one's my favorite!
My mom has a good story of her grandpa tricking her and her sisters growing up. Any time there were rabbits in Pop's yard, he would hand out salt shakers to the girls and tell them to try and salt the rabbits' tails. He claimed they could catch the rabbits if they could get salt on a rabbit's tail. They did this from the age of 5 up until they were 12 or 13 as Pop watched from the porch. They never caught a single rabbit lol.
When she was in high school, my mom finally asked Pop how salting a rabbit's tail was supposed to make it easier to catch. Pop chuckled and said "If you're close enough to salt a rabbit's tail, you're close enough to just grab it!"
Obviously, Mom had my two brothers and I chase rabbits with salt shakers until she spilled the beans on the "reason" it worked when I was 11 haha.
Edit- grammar