8 Pop Culture Legends That Are Actually True (3 of 5)

Mary really did have a little lamb

As the time-honored nursery rhyme goes, Mary had a little lamb (repeated three times to really get the point across) whose fleece was white as snow and who stalked the girl in the most adorable way. It was based on the real-life events of Mary Sawyer, a young girl who called Sterling, Massachusetts, home back in the early 1800s, and an actual lamb that she adopted after Mother Sheep said, “No thanks.” One morning she and her brother Nat even hatched a scheme where they’d sneak the lamb into their school to see if they could get away with it. Alas, the lamb’s cover was blown when the teacher overheard it bleating, and escorted it off the premises.

The stereotypical pirate appearance wasn’t far off

According to pop culture, no pirate worth his weight in salt would ever set sail the seven seas without his bandana, eyepatch, peg leg, parrot companion, and, of course, earrings. The brightly colored silk bandana is a myth; pirates typically wore standard sailor headgear. However, many pirates did wear eye patches for the purpose of light adaptation (not because they were losing their eyes left and right), might end up with a peg leg if they survived a cannonball assault, had parrots and other exotic birds routinely shipped to Europe for sale, and commonly wore earrings, although not for fashion reasons. Rather, they served as protective charms, were believed to have healing properties, and allowed the pirate to keep his wealth safely accounted for as he went about his transient pirate life.