Say What?

I have a tendency to talk with my hands.  I have to say I do not do it as much now as I did when I was young.  There must be some Italian blood somewhere in my family for sure.  I used to vigorously swing my arms and use my hands constantly as I spoke.  My hands flying as I spoke used to drive my father crazy.  I have to admit I was a talker when I was young, so my hands constantly flew because I constantly talked. 
One day in the middle of one of my long running stories my father shushed me and told me he had something of a challenge for me.  Being a teenager I took him up on his proposed challenge.  My father, tired of hearing me talk that day, challenged me to sit on my hands and keep them under my legs the entire time while I continued to tell him my story.  Well, that seemed an easy task so I accepted his challenge. 
I promptly put my hands under my thighs, smiled at my father, who had a funny grin on his face, and began to think where I had left off on my story.  Remembering my spot I started to take up the story.  The odd thing was, I immediately became tongue tied.  I honestly could not speak!  I noticed that I had to concentrate to keep my hands under my thighs.  This was NOT EASY!  I sputtered and stuttered and didn't seem to be able to tell my story in any organized fashion.  Eventually my father told me that I could take my hands out from under my thighs and wha-la  my power of speech began to improve immediately.  We tried this a couple of times and I learned that I could not speak without the use of my hands.  My father found this to be tremendously funny, I found it to be shocking.  I was quiet the remainder of that day as I pondered my hands.  Needless to say I made an effort from then on to not use my hands so much when I speak.  I honestly cannot tell you if I use my hands now or not.  I know I improved tremendously but I don't know how well I am doing at this point as I do not even think about it now.  It was enlightening years ago though, I had no idea how important the use of my hands were to my ability to speak.