A Sure Sign of Rain...

   I recall when growing up on the Knob, it was about this time of year that the men-folk would gather at the Bud Johnson Country Store to discuss the soon-coming winter. Some of their Country Wisdom has stuck with me until this day and I often refer to something one of them  advised on planting a garden, watching the changes in the weather, and when to paint a house or outside furniture. 

One of my very favorite ole’ gents for Country Wisdom, was Mr. Dale Curtsinger. He was a small man in statue with a quick step, ready smile, and often laughed easily. You could tell by his daily routine that he loved life. After his retirement, he spent a lot of time hanging out at the store and if he missed coming for more than a day, we would get worried and my dad would go searching for him to see what might be the problem.  “Ain’t nothin’ wrong Buddy,” he would say, “just getting caught up on things around here to keep Myrtle happy,” he said with a jolly laugh.

Mrs. Myrtle was his wife and had an entirely different personality than Mr. Dale. I guess you could say they were totally opposites. She was quick tempered, spoke with authority, and nobody gave her much of an argument. Yet, she was a well-loved person of our community.

I never pass by that old empty storehouse, I don't recall the image of Mr. Dale sitting on the edge of the porch with a whittling knife in his hands. Big sticks picked up from the ground would become the size of a toothpick when he finished whittling it down. The whole time he was whittling he would talk in his gentle voice, a voice that matched the man. Mr. Dale was a gentle man. I knew him my entire life and I never, ever saw him lose his temper or raise his voice.

One late summer afternoon, I sat on the porch with Mr. Dale and watched him whittle as we share some country conversation… “Ya know, ye can feel fall in the air today,” he said. “Listen to them leaves on that tree rustling around, a sure sign of fall coming, and I opened up a persimmon seed yesterday and looked on the inside and it points to a bitter cold winter,” he informed me. “How can you tell?” I asked.  “Well, if the inside of the seed has the shape of a spoon, it will be a snowy winter, and if it is shaped like a fork, it ain’t gonna’ be no snow much a-tal,’ or very little. Now if there’s a knife there, it will be bitter cold times, and ye can expect anything ta happen,” he said.         

From that one statement we went into a whole afternoon of him giving me a weather report on signs and survival…I learned that “mare tails” running down from the sun and “red skies” is a sure sign of rain. The color of a woolly worm will determine what the winter weather will be like. If it is black on both ends and brown in the middle we will start with cold weather, have a warm spell and finish the winter out with cold weather again. If it is all brown, it will be a mild winter.

The moon was another good sign rain was in the forecast or we were in for a long dry spell. The crescent moon if lying on its back was holding the water in like a dipper and there was no rain in sight. If it is standing upwards, then the rain was coming within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours…

My beloved people of the Knob lived by what they called the “old ways.” It didn’t matter to them what the weather forecast was on the radio or what the weatherman said was going to happen on the Television programs. They often scoffed at what they heard and gave their own prediction by watching their weather signs, and nobody could change their mind. They had lived with this knowledge long before radio and television came upon the scene, and all too often, they proved to give a more accurate weather report than the news media.

Mr. Dale shared a whole lot more of his Country Wisdom. He also had a sure-fire plan for raising a good garden. “Never plant taters,’ onions, beets, or any root crops in the dark of the moon, and ye need to always plant ye beans, corn, and maters’ in the light of the moon,” he advised… I have no idea how to explain this but I know it is the way to go because Mr. Dale said it, and I believe it. I have often gone by some of the things he told me in planting my own garden and I have never had a garden that didn’t produce for me more than I needed and I have always had plenty to share with my family and friends.

I truly wish I had kept better records of all the prognostications, old sayings, wittiness’, and of course the Country wisdom of all those old folks of my community. It seems the older I get, the more I appreciate them and love every one of them with a very special kind of love.  Those honest, hardworking people have a heartwarming story for me to share on how to put his or her story to good use and learn from their practical values. When I think of them, I laugh a little, cry a little, and remind myself on how much I learned from those gentle people who were there to watch me grow up on the Knob…

           

           Always a Way

There is always a way but you have to try,

Never question the reason or why.

You can’t just find a place to sit,

And wait for your streak of good luck to hit.

There is always a way when the going gets rough,

It’s doing your best feeling like it’s never enough.

Never sit around crying over your loss

When the bridge is out, learn to swim across.

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy…Estescclesia 2:26