Woodin Lauren AED 404 Dr. Sarver 2/21/06 Whale of a Tale! Have you ever wondered about old sayings or stories? Or why an old house has something strange that they don't put in new houses? Who ever came up with the idea that it is bad luck to walk underneath a ladder? Is there a story behind it? Maybe something bad happened to someone way back when as they walked underneath a ladder. These are all questions I have pondered at one time or another. I love stories, old wives tales, and folk lore. The northeast region of the United States is rich with folk lore, proverbs, and old wives tales. Anything passed on by word of mouth that most people would not question, I will certainly ask question about. I am not quite sure about the whole walking under a ladder story, but I do know about the small extra porch on the top of old houses. This is also known as the widow's peak. As a young girl, I asked first why the small porch was there. Then, when I was told, it was a widow's peak I of course asked why exactly it was called that. Now, you have to understand and picture where this whole scene took place for me as a young child. My family vacationed in the Hamptons every summer, and I have family out there so we used to spend most of my summers there growing up. Many old houses facing the sea are quite interesting, and they of course have these "widow's peaks." I have researched this topic quite thoroughly and have discovered that this part of the house may have a different name than the name my family gave it. But being that my family has lived in this beach town for many years I still stick to widow's peak.
So, the story goes: When a woman's husband was out at sea, because the area was mostly fishermen and sailors, she would go out and stand on the widow's peak to see if she could see her husband's ship coming in. And of course it was the widow's peak because if the ship never came in it meant the husband was lost at sea making the wife that got left behind a widow. As a child, this story was completely fascinating to me. I can still picture an old woman dressed all in black standing on the roof of one of those big old houses. Have you ever heard the saying,"Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning?" Spending my summers on the beaches with my family, this saying often came up. For a while when I was young I could not remember exactly when seeing a red sky was good or bad. I am sure there are others out there who have mixed up this saying from time to time. This is one saying that actually is believed to still stand true to this day. It is still considered an old wives tale (when in reality it is a sailors saying) but a red sky still predicts the weather. This particular proverb is part of a song by Jimmy Buffett called "Bring Back the Magic." Certain members of my family could be considered "Parrot Heads" (huge Jimmy Buffett fans), so I also remember the old saying from the line in this song. Certainly today sailors have equipment tell to them what the weather is going to be like, but if need be there is always a trusty saying. The saying actually rings true because; in mid-latitude locations, storm systems typically move west to east. A red sky in the morning or a sunrise means light is shining on clouds to the west, and sailing is clear to the east. Apparently, clouds moving from the west mean a storm is coming. But a red sky at night means the sun is shining on clouds to the east, and conditions are clear to
the west. Therefore, if one's equipment ever stops working lets just hope they can remember the old proverb correctly and sail safely. There are many legends and old stories that I love to hear about and would put in any effort to get to the bottom of, but I tend to scare myself most of the time. Any time I hear a creepy story or legend I start to wonder is this really true, and part of me wants to investigate it. For instance, the Salem Witch trials also fascinated me as a young child. I wanted to go to Salem and see if those old witches haunted the town at all. Many times, you hear a scary story, I have realized, one must take it in with "a grain of salt" as they say. It is important to remember that people will always try to fool you in some way. One wives tale I heard growing up stated, "three seagulls, flying together, directly overhead are a warning of death soon to come." This one just like the widow dressed all in black scared me. I do not recall ever seeing seagulls flying exactly in that manor, but the possibility of it happening is appalling to a child. In culture, it is said that bad luck comes in threes, so does this proverb refer to that old belief? Yet, in history, particularly religious history, the holy trinity is certainly not a bad omen. It is also said that in literatu...