I am writing a monthly newspaper called "The Citizen" as a fund raiser for the Senior Citezen Center where I work.

One of the columns is called "Old Wives Tails" I am posting the ones that I am printing this month, If you have any that I can use please post them here or e-Mail me at thecitizen2001@yahoo.com Thank You Grant

Folk Lore Would Lead Us To Believe... ..........A silver dime held in the roof of your mouth with your tongue will stop nose bleeds.

..........A Buckeye carried in your pocket will help your arthritis.

..........When the heart of a persimmon seed is shaped like a spoon we will have a bad winter. If it is shaped like a fork we will have a light winter. (This yeas was a spoon)

.........The number of stars in the ring around the moon tells us how many days till a storm.

..........A hornets nest high in a tree means a bad winter, low a good one.

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), December 11, 2000

Answers

If a pregnant woman walks under a pregnant mare's neck, the woman will carry the same number of months as the mare. (11)

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), December 11, 2000.

Hey Grant! Wow! This is right down my alley! 1. Dont' let a cat around a sleepin baby--it will suffocate the baby by taking it's breath away.

2. Bury hair outta horses tail and grow snakes!

3. Lay a rope around your yard and snakes won't cross it.

4. Don't point over a graveyard--it's bad luck.

5. Wood smoke rising straight up means good weather. If its' laying close to the ground--bad weather is on the way.

6. To ward off "bad spirits" throw salt over your left shoulder after turning around 3 times. Thats all fer now--m'brane is tard. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), December 11, 2000.

Maybe some of the mature ladies can help you with the "tail" part, guys pitch in on the folk lore.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), December 11, 2000.

See if you can get a copy of Hoosier Home Remedies by Varro Tyler,past Dean of the school of pharmacy at Purdue,from your library.All kinds of cures,plus he tracked them down across the midwest and made scientific tests and comparisions.Really good read,to me anyway.Everything immaginable in there.

Here's some I remember.Cure for warts or freckles-Wash problem area with water trapped in a old stump. Arthritis cure-beestings.Eating Onions will put hair on your chest.Is that good or bad?

One I heard recently from local "the old man of the woods" is take three weeds and rub them on a bee sting.While he was here,I got stung. He put plaintain on it and it worked good.

I had not heard that persimmon one before, til this year,and mine had a spoon, too.

Don't forget the woolie worms.All black-hard winter.One small town here even has a woolieworm festival.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 11, 2000.

Aw heck, you KNOW that if you have warts you're supposed to rub them with a potato (or turnip, depending on where you live) and bury it by moonlight!

First words out of your mouth in the morning when you wake up on the first day of a month should be 'Rabbit Rabbit' (NO idea why!! It's some superstition averting bad luck).

Never whistle when passing a graveyard.

Don't pick up a coin that is Tails up -- you will collect bad luck.

Do not spend any coin that you have found and picked up -- you will 'spend' your luck.

If you plant a lilac bush on the first day of the month, it will flower in a year. If you plant it on the 7th, it takes 7 years -- definitely don't plant it on the 28th!!

When cows lie down in the morning, a storm is on the way. (I have yet to have anyone tell me what it means when a whole herd of llamas are lying down at sunrise with their noses all pointed straight in the air...)

Pertaining to buying horses; "One white foot -- buy him, two white feet -- try him, three white feet -- sell him far away, four white feet -- keep him not a day."

Folk Wisdom -- Do not hire boys, or work young horses. If you do, all your food will be eaten, and no work done. (I'll vouch for this!)

To keep birds from nesting in your horse's mane, rub it well with yeast. (you know -- yeast is yeast, and nest is nest, and never the mane shall tweet. :-D)

But this is my favourite, I used to send out Christmas cards with three juniper berries in them, and printed them with the old saying "People once believed, that if you carried three juniper berries in your pocket, you could walk safely through the darkest woods, drink safely from the deepest pools, and fly."

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), December 12, 2000.

If a woman does any canning during her "monthly visitor", everything she canned will spoil.

If your cow comes to the barn in the evening dry, then you have milk snakes, which crawl up the cows legs and drink all the milk out.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 12, 2000.

The Foxfire books would be a god source to find bunches of these.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), December 12, 2000.

The American Indians believed it bad luck if an Apaloosa was born with its "blanket" (white spots on its rump). They weren't supposed to come in for a couple of years.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 12, 2000.

Julie! "Yeast is Yeast--nest is nest..." You sound just like some of the groaners my dear husband comes up with. He was full of them somehow when he got home from work last night. I'd have sent him to the barn to get his "humor" out of his system if we hadn't been experiencing extreme wind chills last night. Actually I get a big kick out of his sense of humor and love your play on words too. Made my day.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), December 12, 2000.

Grant:

Your title brings to mind a slightly off-colored joke on this subject. Don't want to post but will give it by e-mail request. Just use Want Joke in subject line.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 12, 2000.

Yeah Ken-I had same reaction.Now that idea will forever stick in my mind whenever I hear "old wives tales". People will start to wonder abt. me, the one's that don't already, when I smile everytime it's mentioned.

Get Ken to email you his Dr.Ken message if you are curious on all this.

Good one Julie. Loved it.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 12, 2000.

The one about the potato works!My mom had a friend who lived across the street from us and I had a wart on my hand which would not go away. Used compound w, ect finaly I gave up and just Ignored it.My moms friend {older lady}rubed a potato on it and she burried it some where [told me I couldnt know were or it wouldnt work]I thought she was a little senile but dog gone if a week latter it wasnt gone!Sure taught me a lesson.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), December 12, 2000.

I asked my friend this morning and this is what he said:

If you dig a hole in the dark of the moon, and go to fill it back up, there will be too much dirt. If you dig a hole in the light of the moon, there won't be enough dirt to fill the hole back up.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 12, 2000.

Gold fish are bad luck in the house .Don't walk under a ladder ,7 years bad luck if you break a mirror.I know these ae common but didn't want to leave them out .I will not pick up coins that are tails up .Step on a crack break your mothers back .

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), December 12, 2000.

Hello there!! These tales you all are telling sound great. Something to make people laugh about. I found many in the Amish Country Cookbook Volume 1. Here are a few. "Old age is not of matter, but of mind. If you don't mind , it doesn't matter." "Q. Why do cows were bells? A Because their horns don't work." " Last night I dreamed I ate a 5 pound marshmellow. When I woke up, my pillow was gone." " Love your neighbor, it will drive him crazy." " Girls with fat cheeks have hearts like flint." " When lost in the woods look up a tree." " If you swear while fishing, you will catch any fish." "Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night." " What goes into your mind comes out of your mouth." Theres many more of these in the cookbook. But I'll stop for now. Good luck on your paper. Michelle

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), December 12, 2000.

Found this on my Farmer's Almanac calandar:

Timber cut on the days under the 'Leo sign' on the calandar will last longer than timber cut any other time of the year.

And did you know that there is going to be a partial eclipse of the sun on Christmas day this year, 2000?

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 12, 2000.

For young girls: say the ABC's while twisting the stem off and apple. The letter you end on when the stem comes off will be your husband's first initial.

I suppose that should only work once...

BTW, we have a tree in our yard with 3 hornets nests in it. One high, one in the middle, and one down low. They all "grew" there this past summer.

-- Heather (heathergorden@hotmail.com), December 12, 2000.

I remember a bit more to the one of Michelle's about dreaming that you ate a 5 lb marshmallow and in the morning the pillow was gone -- after which, the sleeper was asked "Well, how do you feel today?" and received the reply "Oh, a little down in the mouth." (no throwing things!)

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), December 12, 2000.

well i've heard one about rain and thunder and lighting in november means an open winter but i am wondering about that, cause we have had some of the wierdest weather this year last night during the snow storm there was thunder and lighting what do the old wive tales say about that?

-- martin (martinh@wcl.on.ca), December 13, 2000.

Blood on the moon or broom falling: visitor coming, ring around the moon: trouble ahead. I believe the ring around the moon because we had a stud brought home late one night under a moon with a ring around it, and the trouble followed with a misdiagnosis, a deceitful buyer who said he wanted to use him for 4-H because his racing career was over, then resold him as a racehorse then hounded us for the papers, when they weren't part of the agreement.....money lost there, distrust of claimed friends, and rift in Bill and my relationship because I told him to get a second opinion, not to sell to the guy, and not to give in to requests for papers unless he had the money in his hands-which he didn't heed. Also a rainbow around the sun means the creator sends his blessings on an event. Attended a powwow with a rainbow around the sun and two eagles circling right below it-awesome sight.

-- Epona (crystalepona2000@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000.

What do the abbreviations LOL, dh, bc, and others mean?

-- Ann (avdb11@canada.com), December 13, 2000.

Ann, LOL is laugh out loud, bc is because, dh is dear heart, IMHO is in my humble opinion (which usually it isn't).

-- (tired_of_abbreviations@yahoo.com), December 14, 2000.

I have some doubts about the folk lore about the hornets nests being high means a bad winter, or low means a good winter. While walking in our field yesterday, I found two large hornets nests built practically on the ground, fastened to clumps of weeds. I have never seen anything like this before, and thought the first one had been knocked out of a tree and blown there. Then found the second one obviously built where it was (large weed stalks sticking up through it) and took another look at the first one, and yes, it was built right where it was. Had been damaged by something, and both were empty or hibernating as it's been pretty cold for a couple of weeks now. So I am waiting to see if those nests were accurate predictors or not!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 14, 2000.

The post about women canning during the time of "the visitor" holds merit. Our process reliability control department found that changes in body chemistry caused a higher occurance of copper contamination on circuit card assemblies being soldered and handled during the time of the visit due to higher than normal skin acid levels, resulting in product failure.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 14, 2000.

Rain on your wedding day brings good luck.

Never plant a cedar tree, when it is tall enough to shade your grave, you will die.

If you need to sweep where an unmarried woman is sitting, ask her to move, if she lifts her feet and you sweep underneath, she will never get married.

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), December 15, 2000.

A kiss makes everthing all better.

It will always feel better when it quits hurting.

If you keep making ugly faces your face will freeze that way.

Don't pick up toads. If they pee on you, you'll get warts.

If you lick a slug your tongue goes numb.

To catch a bird, put salt on his tail.

Life is dull if you don't have a redhead in the family.

If Mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Don't criticize the cook unless you really like mooseturd pie.

I'm a wife and I'm kinda old and I do tell tales.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.

.....A cat will steal a baby's breath.

This is true; a cat will lie on a warm spot (ie: the baby)and the baby being small cannot get air in his lungs once he has exhailed, thereby suffocating. Elmer Keith wrote in his book: "Hell, I was there" about his experience at age seven nearly being killed by a tom cat that laid on his chest as he slept and seven is a lot older than an infant.

-- Rose (r.1@juno.com), December 18, 2000.

Mooseturd pie....hmmmm....Nick likes pies,wonder how he'd like it for dinner? He gets me mad I'll fix some up right quick! How do you make it? Post the recipe!

He does eat my turd cookies.Seriously.That's what we called them growing up. They're good.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 18, 2000.

I live in Mexico. Just today I told a lady I had pain in the kidney area. She told me to buy a bar of yellow soap [cheap Mex. soap]. Then wet a cloth & rub the bar of soap over the cloth & wring it out. Then lay this cloth on the kidney area. She said to do this 2 or 3 times & I will be better. The gardeners here don't like Praying Mantis. They say horses eat them in the pasture & the horse dies. If you have a cold or fever don't drink anything cold. Hot cinnamon rolls give you the sh..s. Washing dishes in hot water will give you arthritis. That's just a few from my part of the world.

-- Flor Field (ajijic2@yahoo.com), December 18, 2000.

Here's one I was reminded of just today, it came from the old country along with my great grandmother -- "If you see a boy, hit him. If he hasn't done anything wrong, he's thinking about it."

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), December 19, 2000.

It's bad luck to place a hat on a bed.

It's bad luck to say the word "penguin" in months with no R in their name.

Eating oysters during months with no R in their name will poison you.

Sleeping with the light of a full moon shining on your face will cause insanity

-- Ben (b_dowell10@hotmail.com), January 30, 2002.

Here is one that I heard when I was living in Germany. If you have and infant do not place any stuffed animals or dolls with fake eyes (like you would have a stuffed animal with real eyes) in the crib with him/her, it is an omen of death. Scary since I am 9 months pregnant

-- Jessica Hernandez (blklilly_69@msn.com), February 12, 2002.