Sonar

Don't put a hat on the bed. If a black cat crosses your path; spit on to the ground. Nothing good happens on Friday the 13th. It's bad luck to get near a ladder. You might as well go into a closet and hide for seven years if you break a mirror. There were a whole littany of superstions to observe set down in the annals of family lore from her Mother's side of the family.

On her Father's side there was the standard lifeguard drill for how to avoid getting struck by lightening and how to get rid of a fire ball when it entered one door by inviting it to exit out another. Grannie and the Aunts were constantly coralling the children to either go into the big old bathroom (without windows) to avoid tornadoes or sit in the big old Packard to outsmart bolts of lightening.

Both sides of the family spent their lives trying to outwit supernatural occurences and the forces of nature but on the maternal side the supernatural ruled the roost from the cradles to beyond the graves.