As I mentioned in an earlier post, my Grandmother always had something to say. Sometimes a proverb, a Bible quote, or sometimes just her opinion. (Heaven help you if you didn't agree!)
I like to whistle. I whistle while I work. I whistle when I'm happy. Sometimes I whistle when I'm sad or worried.
If Grandma caught me whistling she would tell me "A whistling girl and a crowing hen, always come to some bad end".
I couldn't for the life of me ever figure out why a hen would crow!
The earliest recorded version of this proverb is Scottish, and dates from 1721: "A crooning cow, a crowing Hen and a whistling Maid boded never luck to a house" ("Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, Explained and made Intelligible to the English Reader", by J Kelly.) (VSD)
I suppose to whistle is unladylike as Jo was told in "Little Women".
So, only men are supposed to whistle? If a woman whistled she was trying to be like a man?
Times have changed since my Grandmother's day. Women can and do work in a 'man's world' doing a 'man's job'.
Meanwhile I'll continue to whistle while I work and go my merry way!!