I grew up in the ’50s and ’60s. At a time when in many places a kid might be forced to use the right hand. Fortunately, that’s changed a lot. Yet, some parents still panic when they realize their child is a lefty. Like my niece – and that was in the early 90s. I told her there was no need to feel overwhelmed. Most of us don’t feel overwhelmed. A bit frustrated, maybe, because everything is meant for righties. But not overwhelmed.

At least my sisters and I don’t feel overwhelmed. We embrace our southpaw selves!

I wish that I could recall more of my left handed childhood. But the fact that I can recall only a few instances where it elicited comment from my parents or others, means to me that there was no fuss over it. It was normal, nothing to get excited over. Of course, my dad would’ve been acquainted with lefties before my birth. He came from a family of twelve kids, and a few of them were left handed.

I’d ask him and my mom about it if I could. They died over 27 years ago, and all those memories went with them. All of my older relatives are also gone. So for now, my meager remembrances and those of my sisters will have to do. We’re planning a phone conference to see what we can come up with that would be useful, interesting, or at least entertaining to other lefties, and the righties who struggle to understand them.

Can’t recall ever being teased for being a “lefty”. Teased for being a “Four-Eyes” for sure. Unmercifully. I wore contacts for a while. After catarac surgery 13 years ago, I haven’t needed glasses. YAY! Anyway . . . I can’t recall being ridiculed or punished–nope, wait . . . except for the time I asked about guitar lessons from one of the local music shops. The guy rudely informed me he wasn’t about to waste his time with me unless I was willing to learn right handed. Just too much hassle, and if I really wanted to learn, I’d do it his way.

Well, I wasn’t about to do it his way. Why should I have to be the one put out? The little bit I had learned at the time, I’d learned from a crazy bunch of people who rented the upstairs apartment of our house. They were part of a country band, and they practiced right at home almost every night. Fortunately, my parents loved country music since you could hear ’em all over the neighborhood. My mom and I often went up to watch. The dad of the bunch quite happily began teaching me the chords. He had such a cheerful optimistic attitude about my being left handed, praised my progress regularly. Total opposite of Mr. Rude.

Never could afford a real lefty guitar, though. They were always more than the righties. All because the strings had to go the opposite way . . . tons of extra expense in that, eh? So, I either played the thing upside down, or restrung it.

In any case, at the time I asked for lessons from Mr. Rude, I had already learned most of the chords. But he never even let me say so. I don’t think I went back to that place until I learned he’d left it. Bought my accordion there years later.

It is true, though, that I am the sort of lefty who uses her right hand for some things. While I write and eat with my left hand, I throw balls and bowl with my right. Just as I would play guitar left handed, I’d shoot a gun, or an arrow from a bow left handed. (At targets–not breathing things. In school, when I got to write at the blackboard, well, it didn’t matter which hand I used. I could use them both equally, and so I’d change from left to right without missing a stroke.

That is, I did once I learned I was supposed to write from left to right . . .

I can recall my mom meeting my dad at the door when he got home from work, just eager to show him one of the first papers I’d done in first grade.

Dad looked it over for the longest time before uttering, “Why did you do this?” Then, wholly mystified, he added, “How did you do this?” He needed a mirror to read it. Heh–-all the answers were right-–and that’s what counts. Right?

Frankly, I couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t read it. Didn’t everyone write that way?

I can see that in my mind like it happened last week. Was actually almost seventy years ago. Wish she’d kept that paper. Would’ve been fun to check it out now!

Dad and/or Mrs. Chatfield finally got me to write the “right” way, but they never discouraged me from using my left hand. Four kids, my parents had. Three girls and a boy.

All the girls are left handed. How’s that for the male-female ratio?

Laurie is left handed is totally lefty. And her use of her left hand is the more clumsy fashion everyone expects. She may not agree, but I do recall it being remarked while we were growing up. However, this clumsiness didn’t get in her way when she was designing her egg art! No one ever thought she’d be the one to produce such gorgeous pieces!

Cyndy uses her right hand for a few more things than Laurie and I do, apparently. Cyndy’s a paralegal who loves to line dance. All of us have, upon occasion, worked in the health care field. We all love horses, hiking, and getting together for Sisters’ Weekend. Which hasn’t happen for a few years. Too much life happening for us all . . .

I’m a writer with a few published works–which, I guess, makes me an Author. I’m a poor musician of the accordion, as well as guitar. I love the accordion as most don’t. But, you see, my left handedness let me learn how to play the bass buttons on my accordion much more easily than most of the other students at the time. Yeah, my instructors were thrilled with me! I say I play poorly – let me modify that. I don’t play anything terribly complicated. Never kept it up as I’d planned to. So I play the simple things quite well. Someday, I’ll take it back up and move on to something “more grown up”. Like polkas and such.

IMHO, the accordion is as maligned as we southpaws are. Guess that’s why I loved—love—it so much!

Love to listen to bagpipes, too.

Besides us, and whoever on my dad’s side- Aunt Babe for sure – there’s at least two nephews, a great nephew, my father-in-law, two of my brothers-in-law, two of my boys, and quite a few friends, both past and present who are left handed. Don’t know all of my cousins on my father’s side, so who knows how many others there could be.

With some help, I’ll track them down, and see if they’ll help me make this site the best lefty site it can be. Won’t say it’ll be the best in the universe. Yet, anyway . . . 🙂

In any case, I hope you’ll find enough here to entertain and enlighten to keep coming back to check for updates and to shop from the many outlets I’ve listed for your convenience.