Southern Superstition

“Hang an upturned horseshoe over your doorway to bring good luck”

Ramsey Walker

Fredonia, KY

May 20, 2020

Informant Data:

Ramsey Walker is my brother. He was born in Fredonia, Kentucky in 1990. He was raised in a family of small farmers who had been farming the land for generations. He grew up assisting in the work on the farm and was surrounded by rural family members and friends for the majority of his formative years.

Contextual Data:

I collected this folklore by asking Ramsey for examples of southern superstitions he could remember from our family. He has heard this piece of folklore from his mother and grandmother. He also explained after the fact that he planned to put an upturned horseshoe above the doorway of his own home.

Item:

Hang an upturned horseshoe over your doorway to bring good luck.

Transcript:

I heard from my grandmother that a horseshoe over the doorway will bring you good luck but only if you keep the horseshoe rightside up because otherwise the luck will just run out the end. No idea why but it’s good luck so.

Jack Walker

314 JD Bugg rd

Fredonia, KY 42411

RUSS 13 20S

Southern Superstition

“If your nose itches, you’ll have company”

Ramsey Walker

Fredonia, KY

May 20, 2020

Informant Data:

Ramsey Walker is my brother. He was born in Fredonia, Kentucky in 1990. He was raised in a family of small farmers who had been farming the land for generations. He grew up assisting in the work on the farm and was surrounded by rural family members and friends for the majority of his formative years.

Contextual Data:

I collected this folklore by asking Ramsey for examples of southern superstitions he could remember from our family. He stated that he heard this piece of folklore first from our great-grandmother, whom I never met. He could not understand the reasoning behind the superstition, only that this is what he had been taught by his elders and thought about every time his nose itched.

Item:

If your nose itches, you’ll soon have company.

Transcript:

I heard from my great-grandmother that if your nose itches, you’re gonna have company. I (pause) don’t know the connection between those two, but it’s been in our family for a hundred years.

Jack Walker

314 JD Bugg rd

Fredonia, KY 42411

RUSS 13 20S

“If someone sweeps under your feet, you’ll never get married”

Kelly Bugg

Fredonia, KY

May 20, 2020

Informant Data:

Kelly Bugg is my mother. She was born in 1961 in Fredonia, KY to a family of farmers who had been farming on the same land for generations. Kelly grew up in an extremely small, rural town and has lived there for the majority of her life, surrounded by other rural family members and friends.

Contextual Data:

I collected this folklore by asking Kelly for examples of Southern Superstitions. I can remember times when she has directly used this superstition on me. When someone is working to clean the house, the rest of the house is also to be working to help clean the house. I believe that the saying, “If someone sweeps under your feet, you’ll never get married” is said by the person who is sweeping in order to motivate the lazy person to get up and help.

Item:

If you let someone sweep under your feet, you’ll never get married.

Transcript:

My grandmother had all kinds of sayings and one of them was “if you let someone sweep under your feet, you’ll never get married.” I’m not sure why this is it but.

Jack Walker

314 JD Bugg rd

Fredonia, KY 42411

RUSS 13 20S

“Paint your porch ceiling blue to keep away the haints”

Kelly Bugg

Fredonia, KY

May 20, 2020

Informant Data:

Kelly Bugg is my mother. She was born in 1961 in Fredonia, KY to a family of farmers who had been farming on the same land for generations. Kelly grew up in an extremely small, rural town and has lived there for the majority of her life, surrounded by other rural family members and friends.

Contextual Data:

I collected this folklore by asking Kelly for examples of Southern Superstitions. I had heard the superstition of painting the porch ceiling blue, in fact my ceiling is painted blue for this very reason. Kelly learned this piece of folklore from her elders when she was a child and believes that the underlying reason for this folklore, as well as being aesthetic, is to keep the insects away from the porch, as well as the “haints” that the folklore speaks about.

Item:

If you paint your porch ceiling light blue, it’ll keep away the haints.

Transcript:

I don’t really know how I learned these superstitions or sayings, my grandmother and really all my grandparents would just come up with them based on the situation. But one is painting your porch ceiling a light blue color, actually there’s a haint blue color out there, some of the paint companies have it. What it was thought was to keep the haints or the dead away. Really what I think was more like (pause, I believe that she was developing her own thoughts as to why this superstition occurs) was to keep the insects, the insects, the wasps, the mosquitos would think that it was the sky and they would kinda go on away from the porch. So either way, insects or haints, it kept things away off your porch so you could sit out and enjoy.

Jack Walker

314 JD Bugg rd

Fredonia, KY 42411

RUSS 13 20S