Dr. James T. Callow publications
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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for RING returned 111 results.
WHAT GOES CLUMP, CLUMP, CLUMP, SQUISH?
AN ELEPHANT WITH ONE WET TENNIS SHOE.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GET SWALLOWED BY AN ELEPHANT?
RUN AROUND UNTIL YOU GET "POOPED" OUT.
Submitter comment: INFORMANT LEARNED FROM PATIENT
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): PUN--POOPED REFERRING TO DEFECATION.
| Subject headings: | RIDDLE -- Riddle Question |
Date learned: 11-25-1967
RIDDLE
APRIL FLOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS. WHAT DO MAY FLOWERS BRING?
-- PILGRIMS.
Keyword(s): HISTORY SPRING
| Subject headings: | RIDDLE -- Riddle Question |
Date learned: 11-22-1970
Retort
Smart Aleck Saying:
Deaf in one ear, and can't hear in the other.
Data entry tech comment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_folklorists
Keyword(s): COMEBACK ; DEAF ; Ear ; Hearing ; INSULT ; RETORT ; SARCASM ; Wisecrack
| Subject headings: | SPEECH -- Formula |
Custom/Belief
Belief, Custom - Planting:
On the feast day of St. Andrew everyone plants cucumbers to ensure a good planting season for the year.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P535, F643] crossed out and replaced with F535
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Cucumbers ; CUSTOM ; HARVEST ; Offering ; PLANT VEGETABLE ; RELIGIOUS ; St. Andrew ; VEGETABLE
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- F535 |
Ethnic: German
Prosperity Belief:
It is an old German belief that if you eat herring and shake coins in a tin box, you will not go hungry and will always have money.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P740, P880] crossed out/replaced with current classifications.
Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; COIN ; ETHNIC ; FOOD ; fortune ; GERMAN ; Herring ; LUCK ; MONEY ; PROSPERITY
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Fish BELIEF -- Fate Destiny Luck Chance |
Custom
Graduation Custom:
When the seniors graduated they turned their rings so that the writing faced out toward other people and was upside down to the person wearing it.
Submitter comment:
This was a common custom at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Farmington, MI. The informant performed this ceremony in 1968 when she graduated. I also did this when I graduated in 1968.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): Commencement ; CUSTOM ; Graduation ; JEWELRY ; RING ; SCHOOL
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- School |
Custom/Belief
Belief - Baby/Motherhood:
After delivering a baby, a woman will eat the afterbirth of an animal, so that her afterbirth delivers well.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [F542] crossed out and replaced with current classification.
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): Afterbirth ; BELIEF ; BIRTH ; Child Bearing ; CHILDBIRTH ; Consumption ; CUSTOM ; FOOD ; Placenta ; PREGNANCY ; SUPERSTITION
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Birth |
Custom: Death
Funeral:
During a funeral, at the Mass at the Offertory, any of the people who wished to show their respects and show everyone else present of their sympathy, would walk down the aisle around the casket, leave a token and leave. Many people would leave the ceremonies immediately afterward to return to their businesses. But everyone had known that he had take time to pay his respects to the deceased.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [S600] crossed out and replaced with current classification
Written in bottom left corner: [Belgian?]
Where learned: PENNSYLVANIA ; PITTSBURGH
Keyword(s): BURIAL ; Casket ; DEATH ; Funeral ; Offering ; RESPECT
| Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Death Funeral Burial |
Superstition
Belief:
If a pregnant woman gets frightened and touches some part of her body, her child will be born with a birthmark on the same part of its body. The birthmark will be the same shape as the thing which frightened the mother.
Data entry tech comment:
motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P438] crossed out and replaced with current classification
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BABY ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; FRIGHT ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
Belief:
A pregnant woman should avoid being scared or shocked because this will disfigure or mark the baby.
Examples:
1. During a fire, a terrified pregnant woman grabbed her face with her hands and the baby was born with a red streak on its face.
2. A pregnant woman was scared by a mouse, and her baby was born with a marking on its shoulder similar to a mouse.
Submitter comment:
The informant heard of these two instances while she as a young girl in Poland.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Biology ; BIRTH ; Birthmark ; CHILD ; FEAR ; FIRE ; Mouse ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; RODENT ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
Pregnancy Belief:
When the informant was a student nurse in obstetrics at Mt. Carmel Hospital in 1968, she had a Slavic patient who had a patch of hair on her back at the base of her spine. the woman haad been told by her mother that she had been frightened by a bear while she was carrying her daughter. She was extrememly frightened when she suddenly saw the bearbut as she made the spontaneous gesture of clutching herself, she thought it would be dangerous to her child if she raised her hands to her face in fear in the front, so she reached behind and grabbed her back. She belived this had caused the patch on her daughter's back.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Where learned: Public Health Nurse
Keyword(s): BABY ; Bear ; BELIEF ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FEAR ; infant ; jinx ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
If a pregnant woman is frightened by fire, the baby will have a red or purple birthmark.
Submitter comment:
Belief: Means of Cursing
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P740] crossed out. Replaced with current classification
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BABY ; BIRTH ; Birthmark ; CHILD ; COLOR ; CURSE ; FEAR ; FIRE ; jinx ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; Purple ; Red ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
Pregnancy Superstition:
If a pregnant woman is frightened her baby will be born marked in some way.
Submitter comment:
This is a superstition common in the Oswald family
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BABY ; BELIEF ; Birthmark ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FEAR ; jinx ; Mark ; Offspring ; PREGNANCY ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
My grandmother has a mark, which she calls a "fire mark" on her upper arm. It is oddly similar ro a birthmark, bu this is the story of its origin according to my grandmother:
When her mother was pregnant with her, there was a fire in the Russion town where they lived. Her mother went out to look at it, and the night was quite cold. She grasped her upper arm because of this cold, and so my grandmother was born with a mark in the same place her mother had held her arm.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P840] crossed out. Replaced with current classification.
Where learned: Myself
Keyword(s): BABY ; BIRTH ; Birthmark ; Cold ; CURSE ; FEAR ; FIRE ; jinx ; Offspring ; Russia ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
Belief:
If you're frightened during pregnancy after the 7th month the child will be born with a birth mark such as a strawberry or in the shape of a thing that produced the fright.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P880] crossed out. Replaced with Current Classification
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BABY ; BIRTH ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FEAR ; jinx ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
Superstition:
Pregnant women should not look at strawberries because then their children will develop red blotches on themselves (which look like strawberries).
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P740] crossed out. replaced with current classification
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BABY ; BIRTH ; Birthmark ; CURSE ; jinx ; Mark ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; STRAWBERRY ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
How Many Children?
Thread a needle and hold it at the top, next to your left wrist. If you keep watching for awhile, the needle and thread will move all by itself. If it moves in circles, for example, three times, that means you will have three daughters someday. If it sways back and forth, that means you will have the respective number of sons. If the needle and thread don't move at all, you will be childless.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P542, P860] crossed out. Replaced with current Classification
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
Keyword(s): BIRTH ; Childbirth, divination ; CHILDREN ; FUTURE ; GAME ; gender ; NUMBER ; Offspring ; Ordaining ; SUPERSTITION ; TRICK
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition: Pregnancy
When you're pregnant is you see a fire there will be a mark on your child.
Data entry tech comment:
motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P870] crossed out. Replaced with P542
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DEARBORN HEIGHTS
Keyword(s): Birthmark ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FIRE ; Mark ; Offspring ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition
"Mouse"
My brother has a birthmark on his thigh. But my grandmother refuses to believe that it did not come about inthis way: She says that when my mother was pregnant a mouse must have frightened her and she must have grabbed her leg at the thigh, in the place where my brother has the "mouse." Her proof is that my uncle has the same kind of mark in the same place on his leg, and she is sure that she was scared by a mouse when pregnant with him.
Data entry tech comment:
motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P840] crossed out and replaced with current classification.
Where learned: Myself
Keyword(s): BIRTH ; Birthmark ; CHILD ; CURSE ; FEAR ; Mouse ; Offspring ; Scare ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |
Superstition: Pregnancy
Prediction Belief:
If a pregnant woman looks at an ugly animal, her child may be ugly.
Submitter comment:
Prediction / Belief
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Reference
Original BN [P800] crossed out / replaced with current classification
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; BIRTH ; CHILD ; CURSE ; jinx ; Offspring ; Old Wives Tale ; PREGNANCY ; SUPERSTITION
James Callow Keyword(s): Reference
| Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Birth |