My mom grew up dirt poor. She was the daughter of a sharecropper in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. As an adult looking back, I know she tried desperately to fit in and not be what she considered an embarrassment because of her impoverished upbringing and lack of education. I can remember one of my sisters talking about her new mother-in-law's superstitions. It fascinated me then and still does to this day. My mom poo-pooed the ideas and would not allow us to even entertain any of this "nonsense."
So learning and trying to understand superstitions is one of my guilty pleasures. My sister said her mother-in-law insisted that you exit through the same door in which you entered. Otherwise, it was bad luck. She would never allow you to rock an empty rocking chair because it was a sign of death. She wouldn't let you put a hat on a bed either. No opening umbrellas inside the house for fear of bad luck and no walking under ladders.
A cricket in the house brings good luck and you should never kill it nor make it leave the house. Death comes in threes. A cat can suck the breath from a newborn baby. Jars won't seal when you are canning if it is, ummm, excuse me here, your time of month.
My dad wrote the day's actual weather on a calendar everyday of his life. One year he counted the number of fogs we had in August to determine if it was true that the number of fogs would be the number of snows we had that winter. It worked. My mom would have nothing to do with his fog count.
I could go on and on with the beautiful superstitions handed down from generation to generation. It intrigues me. I've loved reading this thread. Thanks everyone.
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