I was born a lefty, or southpaw. From what I could glean off the internet, southpaw originated with left-handed baseball pitchers as pitchers typically faced West, (baseball diamonds were arranged so the batter would face East and not into the sun) so a left handed pitcher was throwing with the hand that was on the South side of his body. Hence, Southpaw. Internet history lesson for the day. You are welcome.
My mother was right-handed, dark haired, brown eyes. My father was ambidextrous, used his right hand the most, dark haired, green eyes. I took after my father in most ways including being born with green eyes (the only one out of us six kids) and left-handed. Which hand of yours is dominant is genetically linked. I want to say that one of my brothers is also a lefty, but I can’t remember anymore.
Being a left-handed person back in the mid-fifties, early sixties when I was growing up was not considered the "norm" in those days, and they tried their best to make you conform to the right way. There was apparently something “odd” about you and the world during that time period and long before, thought right-handed people were the only acceptable ones.
Going back to ancient history left-handers were considered to be evil. The word sinister derives from the word for left or left hand. History lesson two per the internet for the day.
I was one of those people that the world tried to conform to fit into what they thought I should be. While in kindergarten and throughout elementary school, I was not allowed to use my left hand as my dominant hand. I was taught to use scissors with my right hand. I was taught to write with my right hand.
My brain was geared to be a left-hander, so my body was thoroughly confused by this. I still blame my poor showing in most sports due to my brain’s confusion over my eye/hand coordination, which is hardwired into whichever hand your DNA made you. As I said, it’s genetics, Google it. Internet history lesson number three.
In elementary school I would often play baseball with the boys during recess and I was always the pitcher because I would naturally pitch with my left hand, making me a hard pitcher to hit against. I did not follow up that sport later on with softball as I found early on that neither one really appealed to me and still don’t to this day. My apologies to all you baseball fans. I may have been an awesome pitcher, the world will never know.
Growing up I would always naturally do things with my left hand and not even realize it. I would deal cards left-handed, open jars left-handed, throw balls left-handed. But I write right-handed, although it has a left-handed slant, or so I’ve often been told. It’s hard to fight genetics.
Out of my four children that I have produced (that sounds like such a manufacturing way to state that) two have green eyes like me, two have blue eyes like their father and one is a left-hander like me, although he has blue eyes. I can’t be perfect.
I did however split both, one son and one daughter with green eyes (oldest son, youngest daughter) and one daughter and one son with blue eyes (the two middle kids) so top that. And I had boy, girl, boy, girl exactly as I had wanted when I first dreamed about being a wife and a mother. Today I believe I may even have a grandchild or two that may prove to be left-handed. In my case God and genetics were very kind to me in my children and grandchildren. I’m very thankful.
Ok, enough about my children, this blog was, after all, about me. Over my teenage years I would make myself write left-handed until I got pretty good at it, although I didn’t like the way it looked. When you are a teenage girl the way your writing looks can be very important, at least it was in the seventies. Come to think of it, do children even put pencil to paper and actually write much now days? I worked hard on my penmanship in those days until I had this large loopy, curly writing that I deemed good enough to represent my style. Today I still write pretty similar to my teen years, so basically I have a teenagers handwriting.
When older age (is sixty really the new forty?) sets in, you begin to develop aches and pains that don’t go away and tend to make your life miserable. I like many my age, have some arthritis, mainly in my left knee, and my hands are not as strong as they once were, especially my left hand, which has always been my "go to" or dominant hand, despite them trying to "break me" as a child.
I also have a wonderful holdover injury from a previous crummy job I had in Parkersburg as an office manager where I had to also hand scan in the one owners family photos into the computer due to his supreme laziness. Because of all of the repetitive left-hand wrist motion (dominant hand thing again) I have since been plagued with what is called:
“De Quervain’s tendinosis or tendonitis – occurs when the tendons around the base of the thumb are irritated or constricted. The word "tendinosis" refers to a swelling of the tendons. Swelling of the tendons, and the tendon sheath, can cause pain and tenderness along the thumb side of the wrist. he most common cause of de Quervain’s tendinosis is chronic overuse of the wrist. Repetitive movements day after day cause irritation and pain.” (Source – Internet searches.)
I can tell you that it hurts like heck on bad days and that it takes all of the strength out of that hand. The main pain is in the palm area of my left hand just under the thumb. Now when I would normally try to open a jar left-handed, I have to try right-handed which is almost totally useless for those types of things. After all, sixty some years of not using my right hand for that is hard to change.
All my right hand has been trained for is well, writing. My left hand has carried out all the heavy tasks up until now and its an odd adjustment. Probably like when I was first taught to use scissors and write with my right hand instead of my left.
Now age and work injuries have brought me full circle and no I did not get any work comp or even any unemployment from that crook. At least his business is gone, so there’s that.
I’m happy to say that in today’s more inclusive and accepting world, we (former) left-handers are no longer shunned or taught to be right-handers. Hurray for progress and supply and demand. (Companies realized they could make money catering to left-handed people. Internet history lesson number four.)
Whatever you do, don’t try to force a child to go against whatever their birth dominant hand is. When they are learning new things like eating or picking up things, I have read that placing things in the middle is the best approach and letting them choose. When they are older and learning writing or even sports activities,don’t force them to use their non dominant hand to try to make them something else, like a sports pro for example. Their DNA knows which hand is the right one for them.
Here’s to all you leftys out there.
Until next time…
Toni