Old Sayings I Remember Growing Up and Weather Lore

 

When some of us older generation get together, it's not long until we start to reminiscing  and comparing things that we remember from our childhood days, school memories, games we played, even old sayings that we remember that were used by our parents and grandparents.  And many are stilled used today.  I know I use some of them most every day.

Northern people tease us about the words “you all”, and insist that we use it in the singular way, applying to just the one person to whom you are talking. They refuse to believe we use it in a plural form, meaning “you and all your family come.” Can anyone find a more hospitable word? I do not think we should ever forget to use it.

It is fun to think of all the phrases and beliefs that we grew up with, and no doubt, to people not from here, are strange sounding and make no sense at all. But they are a part of our heritage. Some examples include:

• A coon's age - meaning a long time

• Limp as a rag - weak feeling
  

• Plum tuckered out - tired
  

• Bone warry - tired
  

• Down in the dumps - discouraged or depressed

• Rant and raving - discussing something emotionally or angry

• Smell a mouse - suspicious about something or someone

• Its just a whoop and a holler - a short distance to some place

• Don't give a hoot - not interested.

• Very poorly - not feeling well

• Fast - meaning an immoral or flirtatious person

• If it'd been a snake it would have bit you - it was right in front of you

• Rode hard and put up wet - someone or something that looks pretty rough

• Slower than molasses - meaning someone that never gets in a hurry

• Waited on hand and food - taking care of sick or lazy people

• It's just a whoop and a holler - short distance to someplace

• You let the cat out of the bag - told the secret
  

Weather Lore and Superstitions. Since the beginning of time man has found various ways to predict the weather.  From this have come superstitions, old wives tales, and cultural stories passed from one family member to the next in each generation.  It is a way of controlling the environment by knowing what to expect from the coming season.  It is impossible according to scientists, - and reliable according to those who know how to read the signs they have learned.  

There are a lot of predictions for rain. 

• Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

• Owls will hoot more at night if rain is on the way. 

• Cobwebs in the grass mean rain. 

• Pink clouds in the west at evening time means rain.  

• If Easter comes in late March, that is a sign there will be an early spring.

  We all know the moon has a certain control over the ocean tides.  But according to weather lore it also predicts weather patterns and how plants will grow.  Many people believe in planting according to the moon, they watch it for the next rainfall, harvest fields by it and predict major storms coming their way just by watching for shape, season, color and location. 

 

Native American belief is if the moon looks like it is tipped on its back, it is holding water that will not spill. If it is tipped forward the water will spill from it in the form of rain. 

 

Animals seem to have a built in weather system and can predict hard winters more easily than any human will ever be able to.  When their fur comes in thicker than normal during the fall it means there is going to be a hard, cold winter.  But this applies to animals that live in the outdoors all the time, not your well pampered house pets. Horses, goats and other barnyard animals that need extra protection from the season are provided for by nature with an extra layer of hair or fur.

 

Beavers are a great predictor of the winter season to come.  They build their homes to protect them from the cold and weight of snow.  If a beaver dam is built thick and heavy, blocking a larger portions of water mass than in years past, you can be sure the winter will be a hard one.   

 

Other predictors of a hard, cold winter are when nuts and berries hang on the branches after the last of the leaves have fallen.  When the oak tree still wears his leaves in October, it will be cold, hard winter. 

***

True enough, the only sure way to predict the weather is to wait for it to arrive and then look out the window.  Some of the superstitions and lore seem to be right on, while others serve as entertainment to the world.  But if you want to find out the truth keep your own weather journal to create a new generation of predictors and family stories.   I've kept a weather journals for more than 30 years, they are very interesting to look back on and compare the weather through the years.

March Woman's History Month #2

 Second lady for Women's History month is Mrs. Cleo Croft, Teacher

Mrs. Cleo Croft Retires in 1973

A face familiar to most of the students who have attending Crittenden County High School during the past 23 years is leaving the Crittenden County High School faculty this year. Mrs. Cleo Croft is retiring from school teaching after 37 years in the teaching profession.

 

She had taught is no many and so varied school she has difficulty remembering them all. For Mrs. Croft, school really began at Lola. After graduating from Lola High School and receiving her bachelor of science degree in English and geography at Murray State University, she returned to Lola to begin teachings.

 

She has taught in one-room schools and two-teacher schools as well as high schools. Among schools she has taught at are Lola Elementary, Sisco’s Chapel, Pleasant Grove, Shady Grove Elementary and Tolu Elementary and High School. Mrs. Croft was principal of the Tolu school during World War II. 

 

Concerning her tenure at Crittenden County High. "I started with the new building in 1950, she said. While at CCHS, she has taught both English and Geography.

 

Of course, a lot of things can happen in 37 years, especially in the teaching profession, and Mrs. Croft has her share of tall tales to tell.

 

She says that in the old days in the smaller schools, teachers did double duty as janitor. She remembers building fires in those old potbellied stoves on many cold mornings. 

 

And one of the incidents from her teaching career that still stands out in her mind concerns one of those stoves. While she was teaching at Tolu, the stove needed new pipes. A student agreed to replace the stove pipes over the weekend but failed to do so, and, when the class arrived the following Monday morning the room was quite cold. Although adept at building fires in the stoves, Mrs. Croft says she wasn’t able to replace the pipes. Finally some boys in the class did install the pipes for the stove.

 

Another of her memories concerns the time she was principal at Tolu. During that time she served as basketball coach. She says, I wasn’t really the coach. There was usually some boy form town who would guide the team. We didn’t win many games while I was supposedly the coach, but win or lose in her capacity as principal and coach, Mrs. Croft did travel with the team to all ballgames, both home and away.

 

Mrs. Croft is currently faculty sponsor for the Future Teachers of America club and the Rockette, school yearbook. She has been yearbook sponsor for the past eight years. She has also been sponsor for numerous class plays and fun raising campaigns. 

 

Students as well as teachers change in 37 years, and Mrs. Croft feels that a lack of respect for property and authority that some students have today has been the greatest change she has noticed in the years she has been teaching. She attributes this to a change in home life.

 

Since she’s not going to be coming to school anymore after this year, Mrs. Croft says, I’m going to do as I please and quite punching a clock. I’m going to quit sitting up late grading papers, and I’m going to sleep late. She adds that she would like to find the time to travel a little after retirement.

 

When asked what she felt Kentucky teachers today need most, she listed, adequate salaries, good buildings, adequate supplies, smaller classes and a better understanding between parents and teachers.

 

In summing up her career, she said, I guess one reason I’ve continued teaching all these 37 years is at the end of the year, I seldom remember the bad things that happen, but I try to remember the good things and hope I’ve been a good teacher to each of my students. (This article appeared in The Crittenden Press, May 24, 1973)

 

Cleo V. Foster Croft was born Sept. 27, 1912 in Lola, Livingston Co., Ky. She was the daughter of Russell and Nora Thompson Foster. She died May 27, 1995 and is buried in the Lola Pentecostal Cemetery in Lola.

March is National Women's History Month

 

March is National Women’s History Month. I always enjoy sharing some past articles and history about some of the fine ladies that contributed to the history and lives of Crittenden County. At the time they were just trying to do their best at their jobs and doing something worthwhile for the town and county, but in doing this, they helped shape the minds and futures of all generations.

***

Founder of the Crittenden County Public Library

Jessie Croft Ellis, the founder of the Crittenden County Library, was born near Salem on September 10, 1891. She was the middle daughter of George Croft and Margaret Ellen Cox Croft. She was raised by her mother following the death of her father when she was six.

 

 

Jessie, a graduate of Marion High School, was sent to finishing school at Sayre College in Lexingston, Kentucky. There she married Cecil B. Ellis, who was on the football team.

 

By 1924 both her mother and her husband had passed away, and Jessie was faced with the task of earning a living and raising her son alone.

 

The family farms were no longer profitable at that time, so Jessie took the big step of moving up North to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and enrolling in the University of Michigan to get a teacher’s license. Upon getting the license she got a job in the high school at Alma, Michigan, teaching American History. 

 

But Jessie found she didn’t like teaching. So she talked her way into a job in the library of the University of Michigan and began taking classes for a Master’s degree in Library Science. She had carefully chosen her new job to be in a university town, where her son Cecil, Jr. could go to college at home. 

 

Jessie Ellis stayed at the University Library in Ann Arbor for many years until her retirement, but she always knew that she was a daughter of Marion, Kentucky, and when she retired she instantly returned home.

 

She bought a house on the Bellville Road out of town, with money from the family fluorspar mines which had now become profitable, but she didn’t sit at home to knit.

 

Jessie Ellis had to do something for the people of Marion. What she knew best was library work, so she went to all the leading people of Marion and badgered them continually for money and space to start a library for the town. 

 

Finally the state appropriated $2,900 for the organization of a library in Marion, which was matched with $300 by the fiscal court. Many plans were made and April 6, 1953 was the date set for the opening of the new library. She worked very hard to select and catalog books to be ready for the opening. The first library was housed in a small office space on a first floor in the heart of downtown Marion. In less than a year, it had outgrown the building and it was necessary to find a new location.

 

In March 1954, the library, with approximately one thousand volumes, moved to a new location on North Main Street (located where Johnson’s Furniture warehouse is today). The library’s next move was to a building on W. Bellville St. across from the courthouse.

 

The library kept growing and needing more room, after the old jail was torn down, the present library was built on that location where it stands today. We can give thanks to this determined lady, Jessie Croft Ellis, from years ago, that Crittenden County was able to have its first library.

 

But Mrs. Ellis finally wore herself down, and the last fifteen years of her life were spent in hospitals and a nursing home near Salem. She died in June 3, 1975 and is buried in Mapleview Cemetery with her family.

 

 There is a plaque in the library that says "Honoring Mrs. Jessie Croft Ellis, Librarian and Founder.

***

Doing Our Part for World War II

 Marion and Crittenden County doing their part to help with the shortage of items during World War II.  Thankful we have the old Crittenden Presses on mirco-film to learn of these past historic events that took place in our town and county, or they would be lost forever.  I hope there are still a few of us that appreciate these old history items.

May 14, 1943

Salvage Drive For Fats And Hosiery Opens

Mrs. C. A. Hollowell, county director of fats and hosiery, is to open a campaign to collect the needed materials today. County community heads will be announced soon with the block plan of collection to be used in Marion.

Stores in Marion receiving fats and grease are Aubrey Grady and Co., C. W. Grady & Son, Krogers, Red Front, Easley, Small, W. T. King and Hillis Hunt. County stores to receive the same will be announced in a short time.

Mrs. Hollowell said that four cents a pound will be paid by the stores for the grease or fats which are to be used in manufacture of explosives by the nation. Either sweet or rancid fats are acceptable as are tallows. Place in tin cans and do not use glass containers.

Mrs. Hollowell said that housewives had been asked to discontinue making of soap at home in order that the fats and greases required may be used for extraction of glycerine content. Fats taken from cooking of cabbage or greens is an excellent source of salvage. Strain before taking to stores and save an average of one teaspoonful daily.

Mrs. Hollowell said that the state director had indicated that unless more fats were saved present allotments of lard, shortening and other greases may be reduced for retail purchases.

Hosiery

Silk and nylon hosiery are also included in the campaign with boxes for collection purposes being established at Taylor & Co., Kentucky Theater and H. V. Stone in Marion, and McDaniels & Co. Salem. The cast-off hose are to be used for purposes of making waterproof powder bags.

 

May 14, 1943

Soldiers Smokes Campaign By YBM Club Here

Each cigarette package to bear name of sponsoring organization and city – Milk Bottle Campaign in Stores to collect funds.

Young Business Men’s club is to open a drive today to secure funds for purchasing of cigarettes for men in foreign service of armed forces. J. H. Jones, director, said yesterday that representative of Camel cigarettes had met with the organization and plans were perfected for having the "smokes" mailed promptly to all foreign fronts. The contract with Camels calls for reduction in rate for the purchase.

Milk bottles properly designated will be placed in each store in Marion for purpose of collecting funds by popular contribution in addition to that of the sponsoring club.

Orville Grady said that containers for coins would appear tomorrow in Marion and later in other portions of the county if necessary.

No amount has been set as goal but all moneys so collected will used for purpose of buying the cigarettes. Jones said that each package would bear tag of Marion, KY., in order that the recipient may know, as to whom the donor might be.

 

SOME HISTORY THROUGH ADS

They tell us a lot.