Gathering Memories - Just A Mite Superstitious

Submitted By Lucille Jarrell

Issue: December, 1985

Taken from "Gathering Memories", a collection by the 1984-85 seventh graders at the Samuel H. Hairston School in Ridgeway, Virginia (Henry County).

If you take the ashes out on Friday; you will have bad luck by Sunday.

Fingernails cut on Friday will grow to be crooked.

Tell someone how your wart was removed, then it will grow back.

If you drop a dish "rag," someone is coming hungry.

When someone has died and their dogs begin to howl, turn the shoes of the dead upside down. The dog will stop the howling.

A hat on the bed will bring bad luck to everyone in the house

Going out a different door from the one which you entered will surely bring you bad luck.

Set shoes with the heels up beside the bed at night to prevent leg cramps.

Never sweep trash outside after sundown, unless you want bad luck.

If you are hit with a broom, this is a sign you're going to jail.

Never wash your clothes on New Year's Day or members of your family will have bad luck.

If you are sitting in a chair and someone sweeps under your feet, you will never marry.

Company's coming when your nose itches, but they are talking about you when your ears burn. If your nose itches on the left, a woman is coming; if your nose itches on the right, a man is coming. If a rooster comes to the front door to crow, company is coming.

If you lay a clean handkerchief on the grass on the last day of April, on the next day (May 1) your sweetheart's name will be on the handkerchief.

If you are going somewhere and have to turn back, spit in the path to bring you good luck, or you will have bad luck.

You should always look at the moon very clearly, never through glass, trees, bushes, etc. or you will have bad luck.

If the hem of your dress is turned up, kiss it and you will get a new one.

If a baby is born with two crowns, it will live in two countries.

If you dig up a cedar and transplant it, you will die when it gets big enough to shade your grave.

Stepping over a hole in the ground will bring you bad luck.

If your left eye twitches, you're going to be pleased.

If your right eye twitches, you're going to be disappointed.

If there's lightning during the winter, it will snow within ten days.

Throw five kisses to a red bird and don't look back. Make a wish and it will come true.

If a crow caws three times before sunrise, a death is sure to come.

To dream about death means a birth or marriage in the family.

If a pregnant woman laughs at or criticizes someone else's faults, her baby will have that fault.

Dreamed of three times - it will come true.

A girl's shoe coming untied or her hose falling will mean her boyfriend is thinking of her.

If a black cat crosses your path, make an "x" in your path or turn your hat around.

Fatback and grease will take the poison evil out of a nail injury.

Milk poured on your chest and licked off by a cat will bring you a hairy chest.

It's bad luck to rock a chair without anyone in it.

Never give your friend a knife or sharp object or it will cut your relationship in two.

Singing in bed is bad luck. Singing at the table always brings bad luck that very day.

Never, ever let a baby see itself in a mirror before it's one year old.

It was an old custom for churches to have two clocks - one showing the correct time and the other a false one, to confuse the devil about the time of the services.

Sweeping a house at night brings bad luck, but a good sweep the first thing in the morning will get rid of evil spirits.

Killing spiders in the morning is like killing a human soul.

A dog crawling downhill on its belly will bring bad luck.

It is much better to weep at joy than to joy at weeping.