Comments 9

1. Claudia 12 Aug 2009

   Hi, just wanted to introduce myself.... I am an "older" woman, 64 years, who had my left hand strapped to my back when I was in grade school. As a result, I am mostly ambidextrous in about everything I do, I write right handed because that was what the belt tying my hand in back of me was all about, although I "favor" my left hand when I have to reach for something, have to do something with precision, and when I waterski, I use my left foot front. I could never get the hang of playing the guitar, although I tried and when I was trying, I didn't remember that I was a leftie, so couldn't tell my teacher what the problem was, it simply wouldn't compute in my brain. I write right handed and type with both hands and play at the piano with both hands. I sort of mentally blocked the tying of my hand behind my back and adapted, as that was what I was supposed to do, but when I finally woke up (when I was learning to waterski) and the person at the wheel of the boat told me to put my right foot in the front and my left foot in the back of the ski, I told him I couldn't do that, (it didn't feel right to put my control on my right foot) and then it hit me that I really was a leftie. Just about everyone in my family is a leftie, my three kids are all lefties, my mother was a leftie, my brothers (2) are lefties and my grandkids (2) are lefties, as well as most of my mothers family were lefties, my aunts and uncle and grandfather, so I guess that it was the most dominant gene in our genepool. I have never used any left hand tools or anything other than regular stuff bought from a store, because I made, and so did everyone in our family, myself do everything "normal". My two year younger brother and I were the only ones in the family who were taught to be right handed for writing, and it was really funny to sit with everyone at the table and be the only ones who actually picked up a fork with a right hand, although when I want to pick up a glass, I always use my left hand and have the glass positioned so that it is on my left side. I brush my teeth with my left hand.
   
   It is a funny thing to compare how you react with things you do, when you think about being left handed or even ambidextrous, as opposed to being right handed. I always steer with my left hand also. There are so many little things that are just naturally done with my left hand, that I have to stop and think about it every once in a while.
   ANd the thing that astounds me most is that I never once thought about it at all until I was learning to waterski when I was 27. That was when all of my different attitudes and thoughts started coming to the front of my life memories. I did feel different, but because my family was all left handed, I guess I didn't feel so out in "left field" different. I do think a bit differntly than my right handed friends on a lot of things and I have many stronger ways of doing things as a result, but I don't know whether or not to attribute that to being left handed, or simply being very independent in everything I do, maybe it is a combination of growing up doing things with both my hands and living in a left handed family and having to look at things with a point of view that wasn't always normal and being sort of the devils advocate in many issues..... but now, I take a sarcastic sort of pride in being taught to be right handed in my left handed way world. It rounds a person out and takes the edges and makes a person into a triangle, sort of.

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2. Arjuna Harischandra 10 Aug 2009

   I am from Sri Lanka. When I got to know that there is a day for left handers my blodd started gushing through my veins. I got to know from a friend somewhere towards to the end of last year only about the day. He has seen a banner about a small function in Sri Lanka with regardto left handers and has informed his wife as she is left handed. He said that it was just a small gathering sort of thing only and nothing more than that.
   
   I would really like to know if there is a left handers club or a society in Sri Lanka. I think only one of my cousins are left handed. There were few draw back being left handed in a right handed world, but I never though that I was different. I manage my day to day encounters without much difficulty. Actually I sometimes forget that I'm left hanved, it's only when somebody excliams "hey you are left handed" only I even notice. When somebody says like that I get this really good feeling being different, especially when they stare at how I operate tools or write something.
   
   I like to invite other left handers to communicate with me (specially Sri Lankans, others are also mostly welcome).

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3. Cody 08 Aug 2009

   I was reading the comments and noticed one about having trouble finding a left handed cursor for the computer. I have one. I just googled something like 'left handed mouse pointer' because it bothered me how my curser slanted the wrong way.

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   1. Jason 22 Feb 2010

      Strangely enough I had always moused with my right hand. Back in school it never occurred to me to unplug the mouse and snake it around to make it lefty mouse. By the time I learned windows can flip mouse buttons. I had already been comfortable using right hand mouse. Other than the discontinued mouse on this site I have never seen a specifically left hand designed mouse.
4. Pat 07 Aug 2009

   My dog is left pawed. She always shakes, grabs things, does tricks with her left paw. If you make her use her right one she gets upset!

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5. Mike Poisson 07 Aug 2009

   My entire family, including the extended members, are right-handed. I am the lone left handed child. It was very sad once I got older and realized I was "different." I felt like the ugly step child until I met one of my father's brother's family. He and my Aunt had 12 children, and of the 12 there are 3 who are lift handed. They too expressed their feelings of being outsiders.
   
   I've leaned many chores and jobs that are obviously done by right-handed people. I adapted very quickly, which was a part of my natural ways, what with growing up a military brat (my father was in the Air Force).
   
   After living away from my family, I returned to my parent's home to be their caretaker. I heard once again things like "you closed the loaf of bread the "wrong" way or "you hang your clothes on the hanger wrong!" Becaused I lived most of my adult life not near them, the remarks don't matter as much, and just learned to do it to please them.
   
   However, I refuse to renounce my left-handedness!

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6. Bob Schwalbaum 07 Aug 2009

   I don't mean to "rain on your parade", but this is one 78-year-old 100% left-hander who has never noticed that my left-handedness made any difference in my life, positive or negative.
   
   This is all just plain silly. I wonder how many other e-mails like this you receive.
   Aloha from Hawaii
   <hr>
   Keith says: It is great that you have been adaptable enough to get by without any problems, but many people do find frustrations and challenges being left-handed and we are here with advice and left-handed equipment for those that want it.
   Aloha from London!

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   1. Jetsin 24 Jun 2011

      Do you have more great artcleis like this one?
7. admin 06 Aug 2009

   If one of our administrators replies to a visitor comment, it is formatted differently to make it stand out, like this

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