Tag Archives: proverb

Be Careful How You Garden

Nationality: American
Age: 70s
Residence: NC
Performance Date: 2000
Primary Language: English

My informant for this story was my friend’s grandfather.  My friend’s grandfather grew up in a rural area where they did a lot of farming.  He continued to have a large garden into her later years and always helped my mother plant and tend to ours every year.  My friend’s grandfather always insisted that you could not plant potatoes and okra together.  Again, as with most pieces of folklore, their importance and weight is from the traditions and history that they represent rather than a scientific reasoning to explain their existence.

Later in my life, I heard that there actually may be a reason for not planting potatoes and okra near each other.  The reason had something to do with  how legumes give off nitrogen in the ground and other plants take up.  This could possibly result in too much nitrogen for either the potatoes or the okra.   I don’t recall the details of the explanation, but my mother still doesn’t plant potatoes and okra next to each other.  I think it is a way she pays homage to her father and grandfather.

 

Tom Dooley

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Residence: NC
Performance Date: 2002
Primary Language: English

My informant for this folklore is my friend’s mother.  She grew up in North Carolina and always heard the unfortunate story of Tom Dooley and she passed it down to us as we grew up.  Tom Dooley grew up in the mountains of Wilkesboro, North Carolina.  Tom was in love with his girlfriend and found out that she was cheating on him.  Tom devolved into a jealous rage and killed his girlfriend.  Tom was eventually caught and they hung him for the murder he committed.  Tom’s life was later described in the song, “Hang Your Head Tom Dooley.”

This piece of folklore doesn’t necessarily have to do with tradition, as it is not encouraged to kill someone in a jealous rage.  However, as my informant relayed, the moral of this piece of folklore is important.  It is told to children, generation after generation, so that they remember to not “lose their heads” like Tom Dooley.  I remember hearing this story as a child and wondering why on earth my friend’s mother would remember, much less retell this tale.  As I got older and recalled her telling us this tale, I remember that it served as a type of warning or a bit of advice to always remain calm and don’t overreact.  This story had more of an impact because it occurred fairly close to where I grew up.  The proximity of this tale had a lot to do with how often it was retold and how it is still passed down through generations.  If Tom Dooley had lived somewhere far off, it probably wouldn’t have been as important to North Carolinians.

 

High Tide and a Full Moon

Nationality: American
Age: 70
Residence: NC
Performance Date: 2000
Primary Language: English

My informant for this piece of folklore is my friend’s grandfather, who grew up in Arkansas and Missouri and spent much of his free time as a boy fishing.  As he and his siblings grew up, they carried this hobby with them and taught it to their children.

As the informant relayed the story, there is a lunar cycle that makes for excellent fishing.  When there are two full moons in a month, the second full moon, at high tide, brings catfish to the surface of the water.  This event must occur at night, when catfish are more abundant anyway, and this makes the catfish so easy to catch that one could barely get their bait in the water before a catfish was on the hook.  This event, which would occur about 2 times a year, and the night that was supposed to have the second full moon of the month became a tradition on which they would all go fishing together.  My informant mentioned that much of the reason for their excitement about this tale, especially as they all got older, was not so much the interest in the folklore, but as is so often with folklore, it became a reason for them to continue a tradition, which became the satisfying part of the experience.

My informant explained that he was told this story by his father, who had heard it from his father, and so on.  Certainly, it is scientific fact that the lunar gravitational pull affects the tides of Earth’s oceans.  My informant, along with his siblings, tested this theory many times.  He admits that as children, they were all skeptical about it but were willing to believe it based on the word of their father.  Sure enough, each time they tested it, they found an unusual abundance of catfish in the water, which always 5 or 6 feet higher than normal.  This was one of the things that made them enjoy fishing so much and each of the siblings relayed this piece of folklore to their own children, passing it along.

Don’t Go Barefoot Before May 1st

Nationality: American
Age: 70s
Residence: NC
Performance Date: 2001
Primary Language: English

My informant for this story is my friend’s grandmother.

When I was younger, I would spend the night at my friend’s house fairly often.  His house was where all of us would hang out and play video games or watch movies.  For some reason, we didn’t spread out going to all of our houses very much.  Since we were at his house so often, we often were there when his grandparents were over at the same time.  As a result, I got to know them pretty well and developed a friendship with each of his grandparents.  One time, when I was spending the night at his house, I went downstairs to the kitchen to get a drink.  It was in March.  I remember it because we were watching March Madness on TV.  I came downstairs barefoot and as I walked to the kitchen, I hear his grandmother say “don’t you know you’re not supposed to go barefoot before May 1st?”

She said it in a friendly and joking way, so I sort of laughed it off but as I thought about it, I wondered what she meant.  I didn’t say anything at the time but at a later date, I asked her what she meant and she explained that her husband’s family always warned against going barefoot before May 1st.  She explained that they took it very seriously and forbade their children from doing so and it was evidently because generations earlier, one of the children in the family went barefoot to the outhouse.  Though it was spring, it was still very chilly and the child caught a cold, developed pneumonia and died.  I was surprised to hear this was the reason, but I often think about that as I am walking around the house barefoot.

If It Rains On Your Wedding Day

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Residence: NC
Performance Date: 2011
Primary Language: English

My informant for this story is my friend’s mother.

Last year, my best friend got married.  He married a girl he had been dating for almost 5 years and I was glad that she is very nice and friendly, which allows me not only to continue my friendship with him without changing, but also continue and build a friendship with his wife.  Since we have been friends for so long, he asked me to be his best man.  Of course, I accepted.  In the days prior to the wedding, we all set up for the ceremony and the reception.  On the morning of the wedding, we began setting up for that evening’s reception, which was to take place outside, when we were dismayed to see that it was almost certainly going to rain.

Needless to say, we had to change our plans and move the reception indoors.  Logistically, this was quite a challenge and so we spent the entire day up to just an hour before the wedding finishing the tasks necessary to accommodate this change.  Sure enough, it did rain very hard for a long time that day.  This caused some new challenges for the wedding itself and for my friend’s wife, trying desperately not to ruin her wedding dress.  At the reception after the wedding, we talked for a long time about the wedding and many different things.  At one point, my friend’s mother said that if it rained on your wedding day, it meant you would have a good marriage.  I had never heard this before and I think we were all tired from all the changes and hearing this sort of let us all take comfort in this fact and hope for it to be true.