Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wednesday Wives Tales


When it comes to marriage and courtship, there seems to be a variety of beliefs/superstitions. Some make you wonder how desperate a woman had to be before she tried some of the beauty beliefs.

Such as, spreading cow dung on their face to soften the skin and rid it of freckles. Or, eating raw chicken hearts, which is guaranteed to make you beautiful~or at least prettier! Apparently you are only supposed to pierce your ears when the peach trees are in bloom and the 'sign' is right. If you do it at any other time, your ears will be come infected. I tried to find exactly what the 'sign' was supposed to be at that time, but could never find anything definite.

This is one that I've heard all my life~Peel an apple, keeping the skin all in one piece. Fling the peel over your back. It should land and make the shape of the letter of the first name of the man that you are going to marry. I remember doing this a lot as a teenager, but the peels never looked like any letters me!

The girl that takes the last biscuit from the platter will be an old maid. But it seems that if a man takes the last biscuit, he is soon to kiss the cook! I was thinking that a man made that one up~but apparently it was taken quite seriously in parts of Arkansas and Missouri as late as the 1940s--at least the part about the old maid.

Last week, Carmen mentioned the Amish putting potatoes in their bed. Does anyone know why they do this?

Pat mentioned that if you take more bread onto your plate while you already have some, you will have company. I did find a passage about that that said the company will be wanting to eat some bread~or whatever food you added to your plate that you already had on it.

Little PenPen mentioned birds at the window meaning someone was going to die--and told about an incident involving crows hanging around the doors at the nursing home where she worked and one of the residents was dying.

I hope you have enjoyed these and will share anymore that you have thought of recently.


6 comments:

  1. Those are all new to me, but I love them. Especially the one about the biscuit... it had to be a man who made it up, because he wanted the last biscuit!!! LOL

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  2. I sure do hope the one about the birds isn't true, my mother has birds fly into her dining room windows all the time, lol! I think they either see a reflection from the lighting, or her pet parrot who sits in that corner!!! Hope your having a great day:)

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  3. Carmen, I used to go to a church where birds flew into the windows all the time during the sermon. It was very distracting! They hit my living room windows a lot, too. I'm like you, they must be seeing a reflection.

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  4. What an interesting post, Rose Mary!! My mother used to tell me all the time, "better not do that, you'll be an old maid" for various things... now I can't even remember what they were!! (Maybe I've been married too long! LOL)

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  5. Loved all of them. I was always told 'if someone sweeps under your feet you'll never marry'.

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  6. What I heard about the birds was that if they flew inside your window or door there would be a death in the family. I've heard the one about the apple peel. Don't watch a person until he's out of sight or he won't come back and of course pulling off the daisy petals and saying 'he loves me, he loves me not' and blowing a dandelion and how many seeds is left is how many kids you will have

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