About

Everyone is familiar with the concept of an “old wives tale” - Wikipedia calls them “a type of urban legend, said to be passed down by older women to a younger generation” and that these “tales” “are considered superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or inaccurate details”. 

One of my favorite factoids about old wives tales is how long this idea has been around. In 1611 the King James Bible was published with the following translation of the Apostle Paul writing to his young protege Timothy, saying “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). So old wives tales have been told, literally, for thousands of years. 

The funny thing is, there’s no such saying for the stories that old men tell. Why is that? Is it because they don’t like to tell stories? No! Is it because they’re all completely accurate and true? Probably not. Perhaps it’s because they don’t have a purpose. To explain what I mean by this I’ll go back to Wikipedia’s explanation, which says that “Old wives’ tales often center on women’s traditional concerns, such as pregnancy, puberty, social relations, health, herbalism and nutrition” and that they “often discourage unwanted behavior, usually in children, or for folk cures for ailments ranging from a toothache to dysentery”; “Also these stories are used to scare children so they don’t do certain things.” 

So maybe the reason why we don’t have a saying for “old guys tales” is because they don’t pose a threat to our existence. They don’t attempt to lecture us, or tell us what we can’t do with our life. The stories that old men tell are just told for the sake of storytelling, and some of them are actually worth listening to! This is the premise of Old Guys Tales.