Thread: Local Superstitions

This thread was inspired by the pocket knife thread.

A few people talked about local superstitions regarding knives and gifting knives.

The only superstition that I am aware of is the proper use of brooms. I worked in kitchens in Ohio, which is not the south but Cincinnati where I lived was a hub for the underground railroad and I think this superstition came from the southern black population that came north. Most of kitchens I worked in I worked with black people, people of color, is there a PC term so I do not offend anyone. Apologies.

Anyway, I noticed that one day when I was sweeping the kitchen that all the other cooks would walk quickly away from the broom. I asked why they were scared of the broom. They told me that their grandmother told them that if your feet are swept with a broom that it will take your soul, or your money and that the only way to combat this was to spit on the broom if your feet were touched.

When I moved to PDX most of the people that I worked with were from Latin America. The broom thing with them was that if you sweep the feet you will marry an ugly man or ugly women. There was no counter to the sweeping.

Needless to say I spent some time chasing people with a broom.

Strange how it mutates.

I remember one bit of folklore from growing up in the south, and that was when you had rain while the sun was shining. It meant that the Devil was beating his wife.

When I moved from the south, I would hear that bit of lore from blacks almost everywhere I lived. As one friend of mine told me, "Black culture is Southern culture. The two are completly intertwined". I have to agree. I had more in common linguisticly and culinarily with most of my black coworkers than many of my white coworkers.

I haven't read the pocket knife thread yet but my father wouldn't give me or anyone else a pocket knife. He would ask for a nickel and then give the pocket knife. If you give someone a pocket knife he said it would cut the friendship.

Speaking of superstition, here